Screening of the Hepatoprotective Drugs from Folk Medicines

간 보호 효과를 지닌 자원 생약의 검색

For the search of hepatoprotective compounds from the folk medicines, 14 natural products which have been traditionally used as hepatoprotective drugs in Korea were extracted with methanol. The extracts were screened for the antioxidant activity on lipid peroxidation induced by Fenton reaction in rat homogenate and Ac2F cell toxicity by t-hydroperoxide. Dendrobium moniliforme and Castanea crenata were chosen for the further investigation and its therapeutic effects on the liver damage induced by carbon tetrachloride in rats were evaluated. Oral administration of the extracts reduced the aspartate aminotransferase(AST) and alanine aminotransferase(ALT) activities in the serum of the carbon tetrachloride intoxicated rat. And the treatment of the extracts prevented the decrease of aminopyrine N-demethylation and aniline hydroxylation activities of the carbon tetrachloride-intoxicated rat liver. These results suggest that oral administration of Dendrobium moniliforme and Castanea crenata is effective in recovering the liver function in $CCl_4-treated$ rats.