Introduction: Liver damages are mainly caused by toxic chemicals, alcohol, infections and autoimmune disorders. Polygonum amplexicaule is a member of the genus Polygonum having high antioxidant contents and it has traditional medicinal attributes in treatment of many ailments particularly liver damage.
Objectives: Keeping in view the medicinal importance of P. amplexicaule, present study was constructed for in-vivo hepatoprotective activity of its rhizome extract in albino mice.
Methods: BALB/C albino mice were selected for experimental assays and sorted in nine groups (group i-iii control groups, group iv-ix herb treated groups) with six mice in each group for six days treatment. Blood samples from anesthetized mice (20% chloroform) were collected by carotid artery puncture allowed to coagulate at room temperature for 30 min and then centrifuged at 3000 rpm for 8-10 min. The serum separated was preserved at -20°C for subsequent analysis of biochemical parameters. Animals were sacrificed under diethyl ether anaesthesia at fasting state, liver tissues were quickly excised and were stored in fixative sera (10% formalin), for histology.
Results: Results revealed that CCl4 had significantly reduced the body weight and increased the level of ALT, AST, ALP and plasma bilirubin compared to toxic control. The pre-treatment of CCl4-administrated mice with extracts of P. amplexicaule at concentration of 200 mg/kg induced a profound decrease (62-94.4%) in the elevated activities of ALT, AST, ALP and plasma bilirubin level.
Conclusion: P. amplexicaule extracts have hepatoprotective activity and it can be used as herbal medicine for use in food, medicines and healthcare products to cure liver damages.
Faiza Maqsood, Tanvir Ibrahim, Ammad Ahmad Farooqi and Muhammad Sheeraz Ahmad
Journal of Rare Disorders: Diagnosis & Therapy received 241 citations as per google scholar report