Hepatoprotective effects on Taiwan Folk
Medicine: wedelia chinensis on three
hepatotoxin-induced hepatotoxicity
林永和
Song-Chow Lin;Chung-Ching Lin;Yun-Ho Lin and
Shyh-Jong Shyuu
摘要
Abstract
The crude herb, Hwang-hua-mih-tsay (W. chinensis), is used to treat hepatitis, swelling and distended stomach in Taiwan. W. chinensis is also used to treat coughs, headaches, skin disease, and baldness in East and Southeast Asia, and as an antitoxic, expectorant and antiinflammatory, and to treat diphtheria, pertussis, diarrhoea and haemorrhoids in
Mainland China. The hepatoprotective effects of a crude aqueous extract of W. chinensis were investigated against acute hepatitis induced by 3 hepatotoxins: carbon tetrachloride and acetaminophen in mice, and D-(+)-galactosamine in rats. After treatment with W. chinensis (300 mg/kg, p.o.) at 2, 6 and 10 h after hepatotoxin administration, a reduction in the elevation of serum glutamate oxaloacetic transaminase (SGOT [aspartate
aminotransferase]) and glutamate pyruvic transaminase (SGPT [alanine aminotransferase]) levels was observed at 24 h after hepatotoxin administration. These serological
observations were confirmed by histopathological examinations. In order to further confirm the hepatoprotective effect of W. chinensis, all pharmacological and
histopathological effects were compared with those of a crude extract of Bupleurum chinense, a well documented hepatoprotective herb. It was concluded that W. chinensis has a definite hepatoprotective effect.
