Effect of Some Medicinal Plant Seeds on CCl4 -Induced Hepatotoxicity in Experimental Rats

There are many plants which are used as medicinal plants by many people such as purslane, chia and garden cress .The present study was carried out to investigate the effect of purslane, chia and garden cress seed powders on CCl4-induced hepatotoxicity in experimental rats. Rats were randomly assigned to 2 main groups including normal or negative control group (6 rats) which fed on basal diet only for 6 weeks, and injected group (36 rats) which injected subcutaneously with Ccl4 in paraffin oil(50% v/v, 2ml/kg body weight) twice a week for two weeks to induce chronic damage in liver. After induction, rats were divided into 5 equal groups including positive control group which fed on basal diet only besides 4 herbs -treated groups which fed on basal diet supplemented with 5% of either dry purslane, chia,garden cress seed powders or their mixture,respectively.The curative periodcontinued for 4 weeks. By its end, body weight gain and relative weights of some internal organs were calculated. In addition, serum and liver tissue homogenates were biochemically analyzed. The obtained results revealed that Ccl4 exposure led to liver and kidney dysfunction and induced hyper lipidemia due to its oxidative effect. As a result of their antioxidant and phenolic compound contents, using purslane, chia and garden cress seed powders singly or as a mixture improved liver and kidney functions and induced hypolipidemic effect.So, patients who suffer from hepatotoxicity as result of CCl4 exposure can use these plant seeds to test their possible efficiency for their condition.