ABSTRACT
Objective: To investigate the hepatoprotective activities of the extracts from Citrullus colocynthis (ECC), a native plant used as traditional Uigur Medicine on acute liver injury in mice. Methods: The activities of ECC of petroleum ether (ECCPE), chloroform (ECCC), ethyl acetate (ECCEA), n-butyl alcohol (ECCBA), and water (ECCW) were evaluated in vivo using two experimental models, carbon tetrachloride (CCl4)- and bacillus calmette-guerin (BCG) plus lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced acute hepatotoxicity in mice. The contents of aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) in serum were determined and the liver histological examination was carried out, respectively. Results: The pretreatment with ECC for 7 d obviously reduced the impact of CCl4 toxicity on the serum markers of liver damage, ECCEA and ECCC with a significant difference of AST (P < 0.01, 0.05, respectively) and ALT (P < 0.05, 0.01, respectively). The protective activity was reconfirmed against BCG + LPS-induced injury and the serum enzymatic levels were obviously elevated, for ECCEA and ECCC with a significant difference of AST (P < 0.05, 0.01, respectively) and ALT (P < 0.01, 0.05, respectively). Conclusion: That ECCEA and ECCC are the potent hepatoprotective extracts that could protect liver against the acute injury, and this ability might be attributed to their hepatoprotective potentials. © 2013 Tianjin Press of Chinese Herbal Medicines.
