Research Article Hepatoprotective and Antiviral Efficacy of Acacia mellifera Leaves Fractions against Hepatitis B Virus Ahmed H. Arbab, 1,2 Mohammad K. Parvez, 1 Mohammed S. Al-Dosari, 1 Adnan J. Al-Rehaily, 1 Mohammed Al-Sohaibani, 3 Elwaleed E. Zaroug, 2 Mansour S. AlSaid, 1,4 and Syed Rafatullah 4 1 Department of Pharmacognosy, College of Pharmacy, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia 2 Department of Pharmacognosy, College of Pharmacy, Omdurman Islamic University, Khartoum 14415, Sudan 3 Department of Pathology, King Khalid University Hospital, King Saud University, Riyadh 11461, Saudi Arabia 4 Medicinal, Aromatic and Poisonous Plants Research Center, College of Pharmacy, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia Correspondence should be addressed to Mohammad K. Parvez; khalid parvez@yahoo.com Received 5 February 2015; Accepted 25 March 2015 Academic Editor: Fumio Imazeki Copyright © 2015 Ahmed H. Arbab 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. he present study investigated the hepatoprotective and anti-HBV eicacy of Acacia mellifera (AM) leaves extracts. he crude ethanolic-extract, including organic and aqueous fractions, were tested for cytotoxicity on HepG2 and HepG2.2.15 cells (IC 50 = 684 g/mL). Of these, the ethyl acetate and aqueous fractions showed the most promising, dose-dependent hepatoprotection in DCFH-toxicated cells at 48 h. In CCl 4 -injured rats, oral administration of AM ethanol extract (250 and 500 mg/kg⋅bw) for three weeks signiicantly normalized the sera aminotransferases, alkaline phosphatase, bilirubin, cholesterol, triglycerides, and lipoprotein levels and elevated tissue nonprotein sulphydryl and total protein. he histopathology of dissected livers also revealed that AM cured the tissue lesions. he phytochemical screening of the fractions showed presence of alkaloids, lavonoids, tannins, sterols, and saponins. Further, anti-HBV potential of the fractions was evaluated on HepG2.2.15 cells. Of these, the n-butanol and aqueous fractions exhibited the best inhibitory efects on HBsAg and HBeAg expressions in dose- and time-dependent manner. Taken together, while the ethyl acetate and aqueous fractions exhibited the most promising antioxidant/hepatoprotective and anti- HBV activity, respectively, the n-butanol partition showed both activities. herefore, the therapeutic potential of AM extracts warrants further isolation of the active principle(s) and its phytochemical as well as biological studies. 1. Introduction Liver injury accounts for approximately one-half of the cases of hepatic failures, including all forms of acute and chronic liver diseases [1]. In most of such cases, toxins and drugs are involved in oxidative stress-induced hepatotoxicity [2, 3]. Liver infection with hepatotropic viruses, including hepatitis viruses, is characterized by acute and chronic hepatitis, ibro- sis, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinomas. Of these, hep- atitis B virus (HBV) infection continues to be an important cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide [4]. Although there are many efective therapeutic drugs available, they have certain limitations. While interferon (IFN-) has a high inci- dence of adverse efects and nonresponse, long-term therapy with nucleos(t)ide analogues has risks of emergence of drug- resistant viral mutants [5]. herefore, many efective natural or plant products have been investigated against hepatotoxin- induced liver damages [6–10]. In addition, numerous active phytoproducts or phytochemicals (lavonoids, polypheno- lic tannins, terpenoids, lignans, saponins, alkaloids, and anthraquinones) of diverse geographic origin and based on local cultural practices have been also reported efective against HBV infections in vitro or/and in vivo [11, 12]. Of these, picroliv (Picrorhiza kurroa), andrographolide (Andro- graphis paniculata), artemisinin (Artemisia annua), and Sily- marin extracts for anti-HBV activities are reported long back [13]. Notably, the most promising anti-HBV phytoproducts tested include niranthin and hinokinin (lignans) isolated Hindawi Publishing Corporation BioMed Research International Volume 2015, Article ID 929131, 10 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/929131