Hepatoprotective Potential and Subchronic Toxicity of Rambutan Rind Extract
The rind of rambutan is considered potentially useful as a source of natural antioxidants because of its high antioxidant activity and non-toxic property to normal cells [1, 2, 3]. The present study is carried out to investigate whether rambutan rind extract (RRE) can prevent liver injury provoked by a well-defined liver toxic chemical carbon tetrachloride and evaluate its toxicity for long term use. The mice were administered orally with RRE (0.6, 0.3 or 0.12 g/kg of body weight) 7 days before receiving CCl4 0.2 % (in olive oil, 10 ml/kg i.p). For the subchronic toxicity effects, each group of 30 mice received RRE 0.6 g/kg or distilled water by oral gavage for 60 days. We found that increases in the activity of serum aspartate aminotransferase and alanine aminotransferase induced by CCl4 were significantly inhibited by oral pretreatment for 7 days with 0.6, 0.3 and 0.12 g/kg of RRE. Morphological observation further confirmed the hepatoprotective effects of RRE. In subchronic study, most of biochemical and hematological parameters did not alter significantly in all treated mice. The results indicated a low subchronic toxicity and suggest that RRE is potent hepatoprotective agent that could protect liver against the acute injury.
Key words: Rambutan; Nephelium lappaceum; hepatoprotective effects; carbon tetrachloride; subchronic toxicity.
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