Methanol extract of Muntingia calabura leaves attenuates CCl4-induced liver injury: possible synergistic action of flavonoids and volatile bioactive compounds on endogenous defence system

• Main Authors: Basir, R. (Author), Mahmood, N.D (Author), Omar, M.H (Author), Taher, M. (Author), Zakaria, Z.A (Author)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Taylor and Francis Ltd 2019
• Subjects: acetylcysteine; adverse drug reaction; alanine aminotransferase; alanine aminotransferase blood level; animal; animal cell; animal experiment; animal model; animal tissue; Animals; antiinflammatory activity; antioxidant; antioxidant activity; Antioxidants; Article; aspartate aminotransferase; aspartate aminotransferase blood level; carbon tetrachloride; Carbon Tetrachloride; catalase; Chemical and Drug Induced Liver Injury; chemistry; controlled study; cytokine; dimethyl sulfoxide; dose response; Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; drug activity; drug dose comparison; drug potentiation; ermanin I; ermanin II; ferulic acid; flavonoid; Flavonoids; gallic acid; GCMS; genistein; hepatoprotective activity; herbal medicine; histopathology; interleukin 1beta; interleukin 6; isolation and purification; kaempferide I; kaempferide II; liver enzyme; liver injury; liver level; liver protection; male; Male; Malvales; metabolism; methanol; Muntingia calabura; Muntingia calabura extract; Muntingiaceae; nitric oxide; nonhuman; oxidative stress markers; pathology; phenol derivative; phytochemical; Phytochemicals; phytochemistry; phytoconstituents; pinostrobin; plant extract; Plant Extracts; plant leaf; Plant Leaves; pro-inflammatory mediators; protein blood level; protocatechuic acid; qualitative analysis; quercetin; rat; Rats, Sprague-Dawley; Sprague Dawley rat; superoxide dismutase; toxic hepatitis; tumor necrosis factor; UHPLC-ESI; unclassified drug; unindexed drug; volatile organic compound; volatilization; Volatilization
• Online Access: View Fulltext in Publisher; View in Scopus

 Context:Muntingia calabura L. (Muntingiaceae) exerts antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities, thus, it might be a good hepatoprotective agent. Objective: This study investigates the effect of methanol extract of M. calabura leaves (MMCL) on hepatic antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities in CCl4-induced hepatotoxic rat. Materials and methods: Sprague Dawley rats (n = 6) were treated (p.o.) with 10% DMSO (Groups 1 and 2), 50 mg/kg N-acetylcysteine (Group 3) or, 50, 250, or 500 mg/kg MMCL (Groups 4–6) for 7 consecutive days followed by pretreatment (i.p.) with vehicle (Group 1) or 50% CCl4 in olive oil (v/v) (Groups 2–6) on day 7th. Plasma liver enzymes and hepatic antioxidant enzymes and pro-inflammatory cytokines concentrations were measured while liver histopathology was examined. Results: MMCL, at 500 mg/kg, significantly (p < 0.05) ameliorated CCl4-induced hepatotoxicity by decreasing the plasma level of alanine transaminase (429.1 versus 168.7 U/L) and aspartate transaminase (513.8 versus 438.1 U/L) as well as the tissue level of nitric oxide (62.7 versus 24.1 nmol/g tissue). At 50, 250, or 500 mg/kg, MMCL significantly (p < 0.05) reduced the tumour necrosis factor α (87.8 versus 32.7 pg/mg tissue), interleukin-1β (1474.4 versus 618.3 pg/mg tissue), and interleukin-6 (136.7 versus 30.8 pg/mg tissue) while increased the liver catalase (92.1 versus 114.4 U/g tissue) and superoxide dismutase (3.4 versus 5.5 U/g tissue). Additionally, qualitative phytochemicals analysis showed that MMCL contained gallic acid, ferulic acid, quercetin, and genistein. Discussion and conclusions: MMCL ability to attenuate CCl4-induced hepatotoxicity could be helpful in the development of hepatoprotective agents with fewer side effects. © 2019, © 2019 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.