Accessed - 545 times.

Shabnam Ansari1*, Mohammad Akhtar Siddiqui1, Asim Ali Khan1, Mohammad Aftab Ahmad2, Azhar Jabeen1, Mohd Asif2, Suneel Pratap Bhatnagar3, Zehra Zaidi1, Shanshah4
1Department of Moalejat (Medicine), Faculty of Medicine (U), JamiaHamdard, New Delhi, India
2Department of IlmulAdvia (U. Pharmacology), Faculty of Medicine (U), JamiaHamdard, New Delhi, India
3RML Hosital, DDU Hospital & Central Council for Research in Unani Medicine, New Delhi, India
4Department of Pharmaceutical Management, Faculty of Management and Information Technology, JamiaHamdard, New Delhi, Indi.

REVIEW ARTICLE
Volume 2, Issue 3, Page 189-196, September-December 2014.

Article history
Received: 1 December 2014
Revised: 10 December 2014
Accepted: 20 December 2014
Early view: 30 December 2014

*Author for correspondence
E-mail: drshabnamansari.md@gmail.com

ABSTRACT

Liver damage or disease is a worldwide health threat due to non-availability of specific drug and potentiality of modern drugs to add further damage. A large number of traditional drugs possesses hepatoprotective activity have been used in liver pathologies since centuries. So investigating these drugs for their hepatoprotective effect to make an effective medicine in the treatment of liver toxicity or dysfunction is promising. Different kinds of laboratory models have been used to assess the hepatoprotective action of these drugs. Hepatotoxic agents such as Carbon tetrachloride (CCl4), Paracetamol, D-galactosamine are commonly used. Most widely, carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) has been used to induce liver toxicity in rodents. Likewise chloroform, acrylamide, adriamycin, aflatoxin, thioacetamide, isoniazid, rifampicin, ethanol, pyrilizidine alkaloid, alphanapthoisothiocynate, tamoxifen, phalloidin, cadmium, lead and erythromycin have been also used to induce chemical injury in the liver. When the disease is induced in an appropriate animal, the traditional drugs can be tested for its therapeutic effect as well as its effective dose and toxicological profile. In experimental models, both in vivo and in vitro models of liver have been used. The hepatoprotective effect is evaluated by ability of the trial drug to prevent or mitigate the injury in different parameters like biochemical, histological changes and normalization of the volume of the liver. The present article explains the types, dose and mechanism of hepatotoxic agents along with experimental model used to study hepatoprotective effect of traditional drugs.

Keywords: Hepatotoxic agents; Hepatotoxicity models; Hepatoprotective effects; Traditional drugs; Experimental models; In Vitro in Vivo; liver damage; Traditional medicine.