Biochemical and Histopathological Evaluation Glycyrrhizin and Boswellia carterii Extract on Rat Liver Injury

Farid A. Badria*¹, Wael E. Houssen¹, Eman M. El-Nashar² and Shehta A. Said³

¹Pharmacognosy1 Departments, Faculty of Pharmacy, Mansoura University, Mansoura.

²Histology and Cytology Department, Benha Faculty of Medicine, Zagazig (Egypt)

³Pharmacology Departments, Faculty of Pharmacy, Mansoura University, Mansoura.

ABSTRACT: The hepatoprotective effect of glycyrrhizin (GL) and ethanolic extract of Boswellia carterii (BC) rat liver injury induced by CCl4 was studied. Rats were administered orally with CCL4 (once a week for 4 weeks with the following doses; 0.16, 0.24, 0.32 and 0.4 ml.kg-1 for first, second, third and fourth week respectively. Two CCl4 challenged groups were concomitantly administered orally with GL (100 mg.kg-1, once daily for 4 weeks) and BC (50 mg.kg-1, once daily for 4 weeks). Serum activities of alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and alkaline phosphatase (AP) and serum concentrations of total bilirubin and albumin were measured and histopathological changes in livers were examined. The elevation of serum ALT, AP and bilirubin was delayed and attenuated and hepatic parenchymal swelling and necrosis produced by CCl4 were ameliorated by both GL and BC. The results showed that both oleanene-type triterpenes (GL and BC) can protect rats against CCl4-induced hepatotoxicity in subchronic CCl4 exposure, and the protection may be partly related to decrease of CCL4–induced inflammation and additional deposition of collagen in target organs.

KEYWORDS: Glycyrrhizin; Boswellia carterii; Oleanene triterpenes; Liver injury

[ HTML Full Text]