Background: Herbal medicines played a major role in the treatment of hepatic disorders, and a number of medicinal plants and their compounds
were widely used for the treatment of these disorders, and oxidant stress injury was one of the mechanism of liver injury.
Materials and Methods: Antioxidant activity of
Nelumbo nucifera
leaves (NU) extracts was assayed by the methods of scavenging
1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), 2,2L-azino-bis (3-ethylbenzo- thiazoline-6-sulfonicacid) (ABTS) radical and ferric reducing antioxidant
power (FRAP)
in vitro. By intraperitoneal injection carbon tetrachloride (CCl
4) to establish acute liver injury model in mice, the levels of
Glutamic-pyruvic transaminase (GPT), glutamic-oxaloacetic transaminase (GOT), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and the content of and
maleicdialdehyde (MDA) were detected to evaluate hepatoprotective effect of NU using corresponding test kit.
Results: EtOAC (NUEA) and
n-BuOH extracts (NUBU) of
N. nucifera leaves had good scavenging DPPH and ABTS radical activity and ferric
reducing antioxidant power
in vitro. DPPH radical scavenging activity and ferric reducing antioxidant power of NUEA (IC
50= 6.68±0.29 μg/mL,
RACT
50=1749.82±67.03 μmol/g) and NUBU (IC
50= 4.61±0.01 μg/mL, RACT
50=1995.27±135.71 μmol/g ) were higher than that of BHT
(IC
50=8.76±0.20 μg/mL, RACT
50=1581.68±97.41 μmol/g) and Dangfeiliganning (IC
50=28.06±0.17 μg/mL, RACT
50=1028.55±3.28 μmol/g).
ABTS radical scavenging activity of NUEA (IC
50= 5.32±0.12 μg/mL) and NUBU (IC
50= 8.16±0.27 μg/mL) were higher than that of
Dangfeiliganning (IC
50= 9.76±0.16 μg/mL). Thus, hepatoprotective effect of NUEA and NUBU was evaluated on CCl
4-induced acute liver injury
mice. The results showed that the levels of GOT and GPT in each treatment group significantly decreased (
p<0.001 and
p<0.01,
p<0.05,
respectively) except for the group of NUEA (130.8 mg/kg) (
p>0.05). The contents of malondialdehyde (MDA) in liver in groups of NUEA (523
mg/kg), NUBU (840.5 and 420.5 mg/kg, repectively) had significant decrease (
p<0.001 and
p<0.05, respectively), and the level of SOD in liver
for each treatment group could significantly decrease (
p<0.001,
p<0.05, respectively).
Conclusion: NUEA and NUBU had significantly hepatoprotective effect for Calcium tetrachloride CCl
4-induced liver injury, which might be
attributable to its antioxidant activity.
