Mechanisms involved in hepatoprotection of different herbal products: A Review

Abstract

Since ancient time, herbal products are being used for health remedies. These plant products are in continuous demand and have an edge over other products in the area of drug discovery and therapeutics due to their high efficacy, safety and easy availability. Although herbal drugs are available for almost all ailments, hepato-protective drugs have unique importance. Since liver being one of the most vital organs responsible for nutrient metabolism, digestion, storage, excretion, drug metabolism and detoxification, its toxicity is major problem and caused by different compounds like carbon tetrachloride, thioacetamide which damage the hepatocytes and affect liver functioning by acting through generation of oxidants, ROS or inhibition of Cytochrome p450 activity, etc. Different herbal products representing different plant parts are able to act as hepatoprotective drugs by minimizing or preventing the hepatotoxicity through many mechanisms. The primary induction of hepatotoxicity is inducing level of liver enzymes as serum glutamate pyruvate transaminase (SGPT), Serum glutamate oxalo transaminase (SGOT), alkaline phosphatase (ALT), total Bilirubin, MDA, total protein, SOD, and CATS. Most of the mechanism of antioxidants is to decrease the elevated level of liver enzymes in serum via different mechanism and in case of liver toxicity to stop the lipid peroxidation. Hepatoprotective herbal drugs thus have far reaching effects in preventing the liver damage and more such drugs are being sought and more precise mechanism of action is being investigated.