Research Article Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Piper cubeba Extract in the Amelioration of CCl 4 -Induced Liver Injuries and Oxidative Damage in the Rodent Model Mansour AlSaid, 1 Ramzi Mothana, 1 Mohammad Raish, 2 Mohammed Al-Sohaibani, 3 Mohammed Al-Yahya, 1 Ajaz Ahmad, 4 Mohammed Al-Dosari, 1 and Syed Rafatullah 1 1 Department of Pharmacognosy and Medicinal, Aromatic & Poisonous Plants Research Center (MAPPRC), College of Pharmacy, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2457, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia 2 Department of Pharmaceutics, College of Pharmacy, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2457, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia 3 Department of Medicine and Pathology, Gastroenterology Unit, College of Medicine, King Khalid University Hospital, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2925, Riyadh-11461, Saudi Arabia 4 Department of Clinical Pharmacy, College of Pharmacy, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2457, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia Correspondence should be addressed to Ramzi Mothana; rmothana@ksu.edu.sa Received 26 May 2014; Revised 24 September 2014; Accepted 15 October 2014 Academic Editor: Francesco Dondero Copyright © 2015 Mansour AlSaid et al. his is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Background. Liver diseases still represent a major health burden worldwide. Moreover, medicinal plants have gained popularity in the treatment of several diseases including liver. hus, the present study was to evaluate the efectiveness of Piper cubeba fruits in the amelioration of CCl 4 -induced liver injuries and oxidative damage in the rodent model. Methods. Hepatoprotective activity was assessed using various biochemical parameters like SGOT, SGPT, -GGT, ALP, total bilirubin, LDH, and total protein. Meanwhile, in vivo antioxidant activities as LPO, NP-SH, and CAT were measured in rat liver as well as mRNA expression of cytokines such as TNF, IL-6, and IL-10 and stress related genes iNOS and HO-1 were determined by RT-PCR. he extent of liver damage was also analyzed through histopathological observations. Results. Treatment with PCEE signiicantly and dose dependently prevented drug induced increase in serum levels of hepatic enzymes. Furthermore, PCEE signiicantly reduced the lipid peroxidation in the liver tissue and restored activities of defense antioxidant enzymes NP-SH and CAT towards normal levels. he administration of PCEE signiicantly downregulated the CCl 4 -induced proinlammatory cytokines TNF and IL-6 mRNA expression in dose dependent manner, while it upregulated the IL-10 and induced hepatoprotective efect by downregulating mRNA expression of iNOS and HO-1 gene. 1. Introduction A large number of crucial functions needed to regulate homeostasis such as detoxiication and excretion are per- formed by liver; however liver diseases are still major health concerns in spite of the progress made in the ield of medicine and pharmaceutical sciences. Numerous side efects are associated with synthetic drugs used in treating hepatic disorders. Consequently traditional herbal drugs, spices, fruits, vegetables, and medicinal plants have gained popularity over the past decades owing to their safety and eicacy. he fruits of Piper cubeba L. (Piperaceae) are commonly known as cubeba in Arabic and tailed piper in English. hey are spices and possess various medicinal properties [1]. In traditional medicine they are used as stimulants, appetizers, stomachics, and expectorants. he fruit of cubeba is also used to relive the gastric pain, enteritis, diarrhea, and anti-inlammatory agent. Furthermore, cubeba fruits are known to possess pain and inlammation reducing capacity in experimental animals [2], which is attributed to the antioxidant activity of some isolated chemical constituents [3]. he fruits are also reported to possess antibacterial, anti- fungal, bactericidal (Helicobacter pylori), and renal protective Hindawi Publishing Corporation BioMed Research International Volume 2015, Article ID 359358, 11 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/359358