Efficacy of some herbal preparations as hepatoprotective agents

ABSTRACT

In folk medicine, there are many herbal preparations used for their hepatoprotective activities. One of the most common recipes consists of equal parts [w/w] of decoction of [10% concentration] Peumus boldus [leaves], Cichorium intybus [root] and Nigella sativa [seed] [Recipe 1]. Glycyrrhiza labell rhizome [root] replaced Cichorium intybus in [Recipe 2] or added to the Recipe 2 to form [Recipe 3]. Three groups of normal albino rats were orally administered 1.5 ml / 100 g of Recipe 1 [group 1], Recipe 2 [group 2] or Recipe 3 [group3] and the control group [group 4] was given 1.5 ml/ 100 g distilled water daily for 30 successive days. Results for normal groups of rats revealed that Recipe 1, Recipe 2 and Recipe 3 decreased plasma gamma-glutamyl transferase [GGT] by -6.1, -26.7, -31.5%; ALT by-3.8,-13.2, 17.6%; AST by-5.9,-6.8-21.5%; triglycerides by 1.8, 0, -13%; cholesterol by -2.4, -1.2, -1.9% and, increased sleeping time by 0.5, 1.4 and -0.9%, respectively, vs. control values. Second set of experiments, three groups of carbon tetrachloride-hepatic damaged rats were given the three recipes in the same above mentioned oral doses 2 weeks before carbon tetrachloride and continued for another 2 weeks after induction of the hepatic damage. A fourth group received CC14 for 4 weeks and served as control. The results indicated that there were significant decreases in GGT [-70, -74.5, -82.0%]; ALT [-30.1, -36.8, - 49.0%]; AST [-9.9, -33.3, -43.8%]; triglycerides [-11.8, -10.5, -17.0%]; cholesterol [-17.4, -16.4, -24.4%] and sleeping time [-24.0, -25.1, -37.9%], respectively, vs. carbon tetrachloride-hepatic damaged rats. Histopatholgical study revealed that the three recipes exhibited greater hepatoprotective effects in CCl[4]-induced liver injury by preventing development of hepatic lesions, including liver centrilobular inflammation, cell necrosis, fatty change, ballooning degeneration as compared to the 4[th] control group CCl[4]- intoxication. Also there was an improvement of hepatocytes- DNA contents. The modified recipe 3 was found to be more potent than recipe 1 or 2