Lysimachia christinae Hance (Primulaceae) is a medicinal plant. The present study was undertaken to investigate protection of
L. christinae against acute alcohol-induced liver injury in mice, the related mechanism of oxidative stress and its hepatoprotective chemical compound for the first time. Mice were orally administered alcohol at 6 g/kg 2 h after a 75% ethanol extract of
L. christinae (ET) (100, 200, 400 mg/kg), quercetin (2, 4, 8 mg/kg) isolated from
L. christinae, or bifendate (150 mg/kg) for seven consecutive days by intragastric administration (
i.g.) except the normal group. Serum and liver tissue samples were collected 6 h after alcohol administration and the amount of quercetin in ET was analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with a diode array detector (DAD). The results showed that alcohol-induced elevated serum alanine transferase (ALT) and aspartate transaminase (AST) activities were significantly reduced by ET (200, 400 mg/kg), quercetin (4, 8 mg/kg) and bifendate (150 mg/kg), respectively. Further analysis demonstrated that lipid peroxidation (LPO) levels significantly decreased, while glutathione amounts, glutathione-s transferase (GST), glutathione peroxidase (GPx), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) activities all increased in livers of ET-, quercetin-, and bifendate-treated mice. Besides, amount of quercetin in ET was 1.03%. Taken together, our results indicate that
L. christinae can protect against acute alcohol-induced liver injury in mice, the potential mechanism can be related to inhibiting liver oxidative stress injury, and its main hepatoprotective compound is quercetin, for the first time.
View full abstract