Protection of Citrullus colocynthis Fruit Extracts on Carbon Tetrachloride-induced and Bacillus Calmette-Guerin plus Lipopolysaccharide-induced Hepatotoxicity in Mice

ObjectiveTo investigate the hepatoprotective activities of the extracts from Citrullus colocynthis (ECC), a native plant used as traditional Uigur Medicine on acute liver injury in mice.MethodsThe activities of ECC of petroleum ether (ECCPE), chloroform (ECCC), ethyl acetate (ECCEA), n-butyl alcohol (ECCBA), and water (ECCW) were evaluated in vivo using two experimental models, carbon tetrachloride (CCl4)- and bacillus calmette-guerin (BCG) plus lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced acute hepatotoxicity in mice. The contents of aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) in serum were determined and the liver histological examination was carried out, respectively.ResultsThe pretreatment with ECC for 7 d obviously reduced the impact of CCl4 toxicity on the serum markers of liver damage, ECCEA and ECCC with a significant difference of AST (P < 0.01, 0.05, respectively) and ALT (P < 0.05, 0.01, respectively). The protective activity was reconfirmed against BCG + LPS-induced injury and the serum enzymatic levels were obviously elevated, for ECCEA and ECCC with a significant difference of AST (P < 0.05, 0.01, respectively) and ALT (P < 0.01, 0.05, respectively).ConclusionThat ECCEA and ECCC are the potent hepatoprotective extracts that could protect liver against the acute injury, and this ability might be attributed to their hepatoprotective potentials.