English

Ahmad Dawood,Gulfraz Muhammad,Gul Hina,Nazir Habiba,Asif Saira,Sheeraz Ahmad M

doi:10.5897/ajpp2013.3728

Abstract

Plants are important source of medicines, especially in developing countries, where people use plant based traditional medicines for their health care. Leaves of Taraxacum officinale L. are being used against various human disorders in folk medicine since past. Current study was conducted to explore the hepatoprotective activity of methanolic leaves extract of T. officinale L. against carbontetrachloride (CCl4) induced toxicity in rats. Various concentrations of plant   extracts like 150 and 300 mg/kg of body weight as well as silymarin (100 mg/kg), a standard drug, was given to experimental animals. The results of this study indicates that the methanolic leave extracts has significantly reduced (P < 0.05) the level of liver enzymes alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) which was increased  due to induction of CCl4. It was  also  observed that due to CCl4 induction, the  level of  bilirubin, lipid profile and antioxidants enzymes was also increased, that was significantly lowered after the treatment with the leave extracts. These results revealed that the leave extracts of T. officinale L. has protective effects against CCl4 induced liver toxicity and damage. Furthermore, histopahtological results obtained during this study also supported this claim and was probably due to presence of valuable phytochemicals in the leave extracts.   Key words:  Medicinal plants, Taraxacum officinale, leaves extract, animals, liver enzymes.

Highlights

Liver is a vital organ which plays a major role in different metabolisms and excretion of xenobiotics from the body.Liver dysfunction is a major health problem which is a challenge for health care professionals and for the pharmaceutical industry and drug regulatory agencies
Group IV (Test group 2) animals were administrated with single dose of 5 ml/kg of CCl4 for 14 days, followed by treatment with 300 mg/kg of T. officinalis leaves extract for 21 days
Hepatic injury caused by CCl4 administration at a dose of 5 ml/kg body weight showed significant increase in the lipid profile levels in liver tissues

Summary

Introduction

Liver is a vital organ which plays a major role in different metabolisms and excretion of xenobiotics from the body.Liver dysfunction is a major health problem which is a challenge for health care professionals and for the pharmaceutical industry and drug regulatory agencies. Group IV (Test group 2) animals were administrated with single dose of 5 ml/kg of CCl4 for 14 days, followed by treatment with 300 mg/kg of T. officinalis leaves extract for 21 days.

Results

Conclusion