Hepatoprotective potentials of aqueous extract of Convolvulus pluricaulis against thioacetamide induced liver damage in rats

The study was conducted to evaluate the hepatoprotective potentials of aqueous extracts of Convolvulus pluricaulis leaves against thiocetamide induced liver damage in rats. The acute oral toxicity study was conducted as per OECD guidelines 420 and the extract was proved to be safe up to the dose of 2000 mg/kg. The total duration of the study was 21 days and animals were divided into six groups. Hepatotoxicity was induced in the animals of all groups except normal control by single dose administration of thioacetamide (100 mg/kg) at first day of the study followed by animals were treated daily with standard drug sylimarine and aqueous extract of Convovulus pluricaulis (200 mg/kg, 400 mg/kg and 600 mg/kg) to respective groups for 21 days. Variations in biochemical parameters like alanine transferase (ALT), aspartate transferase (AST), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), total bilurubin, direct bilirubin, albumin, total protein, ions and others parameters like clotting time and weight of the liver were considered to determine beneficial effect of the extract. At the end of the study liver samples were collected and subjected to histopathological evaluation. In control animals treated with Thioacetamide alone there were variations in the above-mentioned parameters. But in the animals treated with aqueous extract and standard drug silymarine, all the parameters were normal possibly due to their beneficial property in protecting the liver against thioacetamde induced hepatotoxicity. The results obtained in the above study suggesting that, the aqueous extract of Convolvulus pluricaulis posses significant hepatoprotective activity.