Effect of homopterocarpin, an isoflavonoid from Pterocarpus erinaceus, on indices of liver injury and oxidative stress in acetaminophen-provoked hepatotoxicity

Abstract

AbstractNovel hepatoprotectives are needed to address the increasing cases of liver problems worldwide.Adult male albino rats were divided into nine groups. Seven groups were pretreated with PE (50-, 100-, and 150 mg/kg), HP (25-, 50-, and 75 mg/kg) or silymarin (25 mg/kg), respectively, once daily for 5 consecutive days and then administered acetaminophen (2 g/kg) on the 5th day. The control and acetaminophen-intoxicated groups received normal saline throughout the experimental period, with the latter group additionally receiving 2 g/kg acetaminophen on the 5th day. Administrations were performed po.In the acetaminophen-intoxicated group, there were significant increases (p<0.05) in serum activities of alanine aminotransferase (31.72±3.3 vs. 22.1±1.2 U/I), aspartate aminotransferase (185.1±10.1 vs. 103.83±13.3 U/I), bilirubin level and hepatic malondialdehyde (2.32±0.3 vs. 1.42±0.1 units/mg protein), accompanied with significant decreases (p<0.05) in hepatic reduced glutathione level (0.10±0.01 vs. 0.23±0.03 units/mg protein) and glutathione peroxidase activity (2.51±0.2 vs. 3.25±0.2 μmol HPE and HP ameliorated most of the observed biochemical alterations with HP appearing to show more potency. The results suggest that the flavonoid, homopterocarpin contributes to the hepatoprotective and antioxidant potentials of