Scutellaria baicalensis is widely cultivated in eastern Asia, particularly in China. In the present study, we isolated baicalin from this plant and studied for its hepatoprotective activity against CCl4-induced oxidative damage in rats. Our findings revealed that baicalin exhibited strong antioxidant activity in vitro. In established in vivo tests, baicalin showed effective protective effects by reducing the elevated levels of glutamate pyruvate transaminase （ALT）, aspartate aminotransferase （AST）, alkaline phosphatase （ALP）, total bilirubin （TB） and malondialdehyde （MDA） against CCl4-induced damage, and it restored the activities antioxidant defense substances, such as superoxide dismutase （SOD）, catalase （CAT） and glutathione （GSH）, toward their normal levels. These data were supplemented with histopathological examination of rat liver sections. The results demonstrated that baicalin could be proposed to protect the liver against CCh-induced oxidative damage in rats, and the possible underlying mechanism of the activity could be due to its free radical-scavenging and antioxidant activity.
Objective To evaluate the protective effect of chlorogenic acid （CGA） on carbon tetrachloride （CCh）-induced liver injury of rats. Methods The anti-oxidative activity of CGA was investigated with several established in vitro systems. The hepatoprotective activity of CGA against CCI4-induced acute liver injury in eats was studied. The levels of alanine aminotranferase （ALT）, aspartate aminotransferase （AST）, alkaline phosphatase （ALP）, and total bilirubin （TB） were measured. The histopathological examination was carried out to supplement the biochemical results. Results CGA possessed strong anti-oxidative ability in vitro. The CCh-induced liver toxicity experiment showed that the rats pretreated with CGA （300 or 500 mg/kg） had lower levels of ALT, AST, ALP, and TB than those of the CCI4-treated group. These data were supplemented with histopathological examination of rat liver sections. CGA did not show any mortality at the dose up to 5000 mg/kg. Conclusion CGAcould protect the liver againstCCI4-induced oxidative damage in rats, and the possible mechanism of the activity may be due to its free radical-scavenging and anti-oxidative activity.
