Natural Products, Medicinal Plants & Marine Drugs

Gomphrena celosioides is a plant of traditional medicine known in Nigeria, Benin, Togo and Ivory Coast to treat various diseases including liver disease. The hydroalcoholic extract of this plant is rarely the subject of pharmacological study. The objective of this study was to investigate the hepatoprotective activity of the ethanol extract of Gomphrena celosioides (EEG). The experiments were performed on 5 groups of 6 rats according to the method of Kadifkova Panovka with some modifications. Carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) was used to induce hepatic toxicity in rats. This Hepatotoxic causes a significant rise in liver enzymes and bilirubin by massive hepatocyte alteration rate. The rats were then treated by the EEG (250 and 500mg/ kg body weight) and the Silymarin (SIL) known for its hepatoprotective properties (100mg/kg body weight). The results showed that preventive treatment with EEG and SIL have no significant influences on body weight and relative liver weights of animals; however these treatments have caused a significant decrease in serum transaminases and alkaline phosphatase (Px0.05) compared to the negative control. with a protection of 84.56%, 86.79%, 86.67% for SIL and 46.29%, 46.22%, 49.87% for the EEG at a dose of 500 mg/kg; respectively for Alanine Aminotransferase (ALT), the Aspartate Aminotransferase (AST) and alkaline phosphatase. This study reveals that the EEG possesses hepatoprotective properties more significant to 500mg/kg. But this protective activity of the liver of the EEG is statistically less than that of silymarin which is our reference molecule.