A crude aqueous leafy extract of M. indica possesses hepatoprotective effects. - GreenMedInfo Summary

Background: Drug-induced hepatotoxicity is a major public health issue of concern. It significantly affects the development of new pharmaceutical drugs and has led to the withdrawal of many promising pharmaceutical drugs from the pharmaceutical market.

Aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate the hepatoprotective, ameliorative and antioxidant effects of the crude aqueous leafy extract ofplant and its different separating medium fractions against acute acetaminophen (paracetamol)-induced hepatotoxicity in a mouse model.

Methods & materials: Twelve different groups of six mice (three males and three females) were used for this study. Acetaminophen at a single lethal hepatotoxic dose of 3 g/kg was orally administered on the seventh day to the mice in groups 2 to 12 after their 6-day pretreatment duration for the induction of hepatotoxicity; and were then left for 24 hours before the collection of specimen samples were completed, while group 1 served as control.

Results: The crude aqueous leafy extract of(125-250 mg/kg) produced a dose-dependent reversal of the lethal hepatotoxic effect of oral 3 g/kg dose of paracetamol. At the dose of 250 mg/kg, it significantly (p < 0.0001) reduced the levels of hepatic enzymes markers (alanine transaminase [ALT], aspartate transaminase [AST] and alkaline phosphatase [ALP]) in the serum of treated animals. Also, the effects of the crude aqueous leafy extract were found to be statistically significant (p < 0.0001) more than that of its different separating medium fractional components.

Conclusion: The findings from this study demonstrated that the crude aqueous leafy extract ofpossesses hepatoprotective effect, possibly mediated through the induction of antioxidant enzymes to prevent the occurrence of oxidative stress damage or most likely through the inhibition of pro-inflammatory mediators which are being induced by the lethal hepatotoxic dose of paracetamol.