Abstract

As Chinese folklore medicine, Lysimachia paridiformis Franch. var. stenophylla Franch. (LPF) has been used for treatment of various diseases such as rheumatism and hemiplegia. Our previous studies have shown that LPF have strong antioxidant activity in vitro. Nevertheless, there have been no reports on the hepatoprotective effect of the extracts of LPF in animals. The aim of this study is to investigate the hepatoprotective effect of the extracts of LPF (LPFPE, LPFEA and LPFBU) on CCl₄-induced acute liver injury mice. Intragastric administration of LPFPE (1000, 500 and 250 mg/kg, respectively), LPFEA (800, 400 and 200 mg/kg, respectively) and LPFBU (600, 300 and 150 mg/kg, respectively) were carried out on mice for 8 days. 2 h after the final administration except for the normal control group, the other groups were intraperitoneally injected with CCl₄ diluted in olive oil at the dose of 0.05 ml/kg, and normal control group was injected with an equivalent volume of olive oil alone. The level of glutamic-oxalacetic transaminase (GOT) and glutamic pyruvic transaminase (GPT) in each treatment group significantly decreased (p < 0.01 and p < 0.05, respectively). The level of malondialdehyde (MDA) in liver for each treatment group significantly decreased (p < 0.001), and the level of SOD in liver for each treatment group significantly increased (p < 0.001, p < 0.01 and p < 0.05, respectively). It was demonstrated that three extracts of LPF had good hepatoprotective effect for CCl₄-induced liver injury mice, which may be attributable to its antioxidant activity.

Key words: Antioxidant activity, hepatoprotective effect, Lysimachia paridiformis Franch. var.stenophylla Franch.