Journal of Ethnopharmacology 79 (2002) 313 – 316 Hepatoprotective activity of two plants belonging to the Apiaceae and the Euphorbiaceae family Bahar Ahmed *, Tanveer Alam, Manoj Varshney, Shah Alam Khan Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Antihepatotoxic Research Laboratory, Faculty of Pharmacy, Jamia Hamdard, Hamdard Nagar, New Delhi 110 062, India Accepted 5 November 2001 Abstract The different extracts of Apium graeolens Linn. (Apiaceae) and Croton oblongifolius Roxb. (Euphorbiaceae) were tested for their hepatoprotective activity against CCl 4 induced hepatotoxicity in albino rats. The degree of protection was measured by using biochemical parameters like serum transaminases (SGOT and SGPT), alkaline phosphatase, total protein and albumin. The methanolic extracts showed the most significant hepatoprotective activity comparable with standard drug silymarin. Other extracts namely petroleum ether and acetone also exhibited a potent activity. © 2002 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Apium graeolens ; Croton oblongifolius ; Hepatoprotective activity; Silymarin; CCl 4 www.elsevier.com/locate/jethpharm 1. Introduction Apium graeolens Linn. (Apiaceae) grows widely in the foothills of North-Western Himalayas and the out- lying hills of Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. It is commonly known as ‘Ajmod’ and the fruits are popularly known as Celery seeds. As antispas- modic, they are used in bronchitis, asthma and to some extent for liver and spleen diseases (Nadkarni and Nadkarni, 1976; Singh and Handa, 1995). Croton oblongifolius Roxb., popularly known as ‘Chucka’ in Hindi, is middle-sized tree belonging to the family Euphorbiaceae. It grows widely in India (Kir- tikar and Basu, 1997). Bark is used in reducing chronic enlargement of the liver and in remittent fever. It is applied externally to the hepatic region in chronic hepatitis (Nadkarni and Nadkarni, 1954). The (50%) ethanolic extract of the aerial parts shows hypotensive activity (Bhakuni et al., 1971). Polyherbal formulations reputed to have hepatopro- tective activity that are available on the Indian market comprise about 100 Indian Medicinal Plants (Handa et al., 1986). Reports on the hepatoprotective activity of the following species have been published: Capparis spinosa (Shirwaiker et al., 1996), Daccus carota (Bhayee et al., 1995), Euphorbia antisyphilitica (Saraf et al., 1996), Hygrophyla auriculata (Singh and Handa, 1995), Lycium chinensis (Kim et al., 1994), Rubia cordifolia (Gilani and Janbaz, 1995), Silybum marianum (Wang et al., 1996), Zingiber officinale (Aggarwal and Prakash, 1995). The present pharmacological investigation focuses on evaluation of the efficacy of different extracts of seeds of A. graeolens and aerial parts of C. oblongifolius for their protection against CCl 4 - induced hepatotoxicity. 2. Materials and methods 2.1. Plant material Seeds of A. graeolens and aerial parts of C. oblongi - folius were procured from the Herba Indica, Chandi- garh, India, in the month of May 1998 and authenticated by a taxonomist Dr H.S. Puri, the Direc- tor of Herba Indica. The voucher specimens (collection nos. 715 and 125) are kept in the herbarium of Jamia Hamdard for future reference. * Corresponding author. Tel.: +91-11-6088682x354, 352 (O)/ 6081791 (R); fax: +91-11-6088874. E-mail addresses: root@hamduni.ren.nic.in, baharchem@ yahoo.com (B. Ahmed), almtanveer@yahoo.com (T. Alam), shahalamkhan@yahoo.com (S.A. Khan). 0378-8741/02/$ - see front matter © 2002 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. PII:S0378-8741(01)00392-0