Hindawi Publishing Corporation Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine Volume 2011, Article ID 238020, 12 pages doi:10.1155/2011/238020 Research Article Antioxidant and Protective Effect of Ethyl Acetate Extract of Podophyllum hexandrum Rhizome on Carbon Tetrachloride Induced Rat Liver Injury Showkat Ahmad Ganie, 1 Ehtishamul Haq, 2 Akbar Masood, 1 Abid Hamid, 3 and Mohmmad Afzal Zargar 1 1 Department of Biochemistry, University of Kashmir, Srinagar 190006, India 2 Department of Biotechnology, University of Kashmir, Srinagar 190006, India 3 Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine, Jammu (Council of Scientific and Industrial Research), India Correspondence should be addressed to Mohmmad Afzal Zargar, zargarma@kashmiruniversity.ac.in Received 30 August 2010; Accepted 25 November 2010 Copyright © 2011 Showkat Ahmad Ganie et al. This 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. The antioxidant and hepatoprotective activities of ethyl acetate extract was carefully investigated by the methods of DPPH radical scavenging activity, Hydroxyl radical scavenging activity, superoxide radical scavenging activity, hydrogen peroxide radical scavenging activity, and its reducing power ability. All these in vitro antioxidant activities were concentration dependent, which were compared with standard antioxidants such as BHT, α-tocopherol. The hepatoprotective potential of Podophyllum hexandrum extract was also evaluated in male Wistar rats against carbon tetrachloride- (CCl 4 -) induced liver damage. Pretreated rats were given ethyl acetate extract at 20, 30, and 50 mg/kg dose prior to CCl 4 administration (1 mL/kg, 1:1 in olive oil). Rats pretreated with P. hexandrum extract remarkably prevented the elevation of serum AST, ALT, LDH, and liver lipid peroxides in CCl 4 -treated rats. Hepatic glutathione levels were significantly increased by the treatment with the extract in all the experimental groups. The extract at the tested doses also restored the levels of liver homogenate enzymes (glutathione peroxidase, glutathione reductase, superoxide dismutase, and glutathione-S-transferase) significantly. This study suggests that ethyl acetate extract of P. hexandrum has a liver-protective effect against CCl 4 -induced hepatotoxicity and possess in vitro antioxidant activities. 1. Introduction The partially reduced metabolites of oxygen and nitrogen, commonly referred to as free radicals are highly toxic and reactive. They have been postulated to be increased in majority of diseases like aging, atherosclerosis, cancer, diabetes, liver cirrhosis, cardiovascular disorders, and so forth, [1, 2]. The most common reactive oxygen species are superoxide anion (O 2 ·-), hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ), peroxyl radical (ROO • ), and highly reactive hydroxyl radical (OH • ). Oxidative processes are the most important routes for producing free radicals in living systems. The liver, because of its strategic anatomical action and its large capacity for metabolic conversions, is exposed to many kinds of xenobiotics and therapeutic agents. Due to these facts, efforts to find suitable curatative agents for treatment of liver diseases in natural products of plant and mineral origin are being made [2]. Liver injury induced by CCl 4 is the best characterized system of xenobiotics-induced hepatotoxicity in living system. It is a volatile organic chemical and causes liver, kidney and lung damage through free radical mediated process. Antioxidants are the substances that when present in low concentration significantly delay or reduce the oxidation of the substrate [3]. Antioxidants protect the body from damaging oxidation reactions by reacting with free radicals and other reactive oxygen species; therefore, diseases linked with free radicals can be prevented by antioxidant therapy. The subject has gained an immense importance and cur- rent research trends are directed towards finding naturally occurring antioxidants particularly of plant origin [4–6]. Currently, available synthetic antioxidants like butylated hydroxy anisole (BHA), butylated hydroxy toluene (BHT), tertiary butylated hydroquinone, and gallic acid esters have