1Department of Pharmacology, UDPS, Utkal University, Vanivihar, Bhubaneswar, Odisha
2Department of Pharmacology, Akash Institute of Pharmaceutical Education & Technology, Mahipal, Kendrapara, Odisha
3I-BOOKS Institute Pvt.Ltd, Bhubaneswar, Odisha
The plant kingdom has been a very important resource to offer us natural products which are meant for treating many diseases with lesser side effects. Since the liver performs many vital functions in our human body, the malfunction in the liver causes a severe threat to public health. The challenges such as stimulation of affected liver function, lack of complete protection of the liver, degeneration of liver cells and inefficient nature of current treatment therapy often delay the drug discovery in liver diseases. Despite the setback, natural products derived from plant resources have partly provided some relief in identifying liver protecting compounds. For instance, silymarin is a naturally obtained milk thistle, containing flavonolignans. Research studies emphasized a hepatoprotective property of silymarin in acute and chronic hepatic dysfunction. Multiple pharmacological mechanisms behind hepatoprotective efficacy of silymarin were reported including stimulation of superoxide dismutase expression and its activity, inhibition of entry of toxins into the liver, enriching glutathione concentrations, improving liver protein production and blocking lipid peroxidation process. A lot of factors should be considered to get a novel natural compound that possesses hepatoprotective property. Parameters such as extraction procedure, parts of the plant and use of reagents in separation technique are very critical in the isolation of the active natural product.
Srikar Barik, P. K. Panda, Diptimayee Jena, A Review On Hepatoprotective Efficacy Of Various Phytochemicals, Int. J. of Pharm. Sci., 2024, Vol 2, Issue 2, 190-197. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10635877
10.5281/zenodo.10635877
