INTRODUCTION
Liver has a pivotal role in regulation of physiological processes.
It is involved in several vital functions such as metabolism, secretion
and storage. Further more, detoxification of a variety of drugs
and xenobiotics occurs in liver. The bile secreted by the"
liver has, among other things, an important role in digestion. Many
of the metabolic activities of the body are centred in the liver.
Liver diseases remain one of the serious health problems (Subramaniam
e-t al., 1998).
Liver diseases remain one of the serious health problems in our
country. It is caused by hepatotoxins, chemotherapeutics or toxic
environmental chemicals. Although tremendous development have occurred
in allopathic medicine, till date no effective hepatoprotective
medicine has been formulated.
Many plant-derived drugs used in modern medicine are developed.
There are more than 100 drugs of known structure that are extracted
from higher plants and used in allopathic medicine (Fransworth.
1990 and Cox, 1994). Scientific studies available on a good number
of medicinal plants indicate that promising phytochemicals can be
developed for many health problems (Gupta, 1994).
Herbal medicines are effective in certain diseases and are based
on experience in the use of plant products in curing common ailments.
Herbal medicine is still the mainstay of about 75-80% of the world
population mainly in developing countries, for primary health care
because of better compatibility with the human body and lesser side
effects (Rawla, 1996).
Ashshifa-1000, a unani multiherbal formulation is used in hepatic
disorders. However, no scientific data regarding the effectiveness
of this herbal formulation is available. This study therefore, has
been designed with the following objectives:
1. Detection of the phytochemicals present in Ashshifa-1000 by systematic
qualitative analysis.
2. Quantification of the phytochemicals in Ashshifa-1000.
3. Determination of its antioxidant potential.
4. Estimating the extent of inhibition of in vitro lipid peroxidation.
5. Determination of the mutagenic/antimutagenic effect of Ashshifa-1000.
6. Assessment of the hepatoprotective efficacy of Ashshifa-1000
against CCL4 induced liver damage in mice. |
