Research Article
Hepatoprotective Effects of Chinese Medicine Herbs Decoction
on Liver Cirrhosis in Rats
Nor Aziyah Mat-Rahim,
1,2
Tong-Hye Lim,
3
Nur-Asyura Nor-Amdan,
1
and Sazaly AbuBakar
1
1
Tropical Infectious Diseases Research and Education Center (TIDREC), Department of Medical Microbiology,
Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
2
Virology Unit, Institute for Medical Research, Jalan Pahang, 50588 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
3
Herbitec (M) Sdn Bhd, 11-2 Jalan Sri Hartamas 7, Taman Sri Hartamas, 50480 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Correspondence should be addressed to Sazaly AbuBakar; sazaly@um.edu.my
Received 20 July 2016; Accepted 16 January 2017; Published 9 February 2017
Academic Editor: Luciana Dini
Copyright © 2017 Nor Aziyah Mat-Rahim et al. Tis 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.
Hepatoprotective and curative activities of aqueous extract of decoction containing 10 Chinese medicinal herbs (HPE-XA-08)
were evaluated in Sprague–Dawley albino rats with liver damage induced by thioacetamide (TAA). Tese activities were assessed
by investigating the liver enzymes level and also histopathology investigation. Increases in alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and gamma-
glutamyl transferase (GGT) levels were observed in rats with cirrhotic liver. No signifcant alterations of the liver enzymes were
observed following treatment with HPE-XA-08. Histopathology examination of rats treated with HPE-XA-08 at 250 mg/kg body
weight, however, exhibited moderate liver protective efects. Reduced extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins within the hepatocytes
were noted in comparison to the cirrhotic liver. Te curative efects of HPE-XA-08 were observed with marked decrease in the
level of ALP (more than 3x) and level of GGT (more than 2x) in cirrhotic rat treated with 600 mg/kg body weight HPE-XA-08 in
comparison to cirrhotic rat treated with just water diluent. Reversion of cirrhotic liver to normal liver condition in rats treated with
HPE-XA-08 was observed. Results from the present study suggest that HPE-XA-08 treatment assisted in the protection from liver
cirrhosis and improved the recovery of cirrhotic liver.
1. Introduction
Chronic liver disease is the ninth leading cause of mortality
in Western and developing countries [1]. Te disease resulted
from chronic proinfammatory injuries, which could cause
progressive fbrosis causing the liver to scar and eventually
becomes cirrhotic. Tere are many factors that could lead to
chronic liver injury and among them are viral infections such
as hepatitis C infection, chronic alcoholism, and autoimmune
diseases and also due to drug or substance abuses. Five
percent of persons with liver cirrhosis could progress to
develop liver cancer [2].
To date, there is no specifc treatment for liver cirrhosis.
Suferers are treated to reduce the complications due to the
damaged liver from exacerbating. Te treatments are ofen
expensive especially for those in developing countries where
there is high rate of liver cirrhosis in the population. Due to
these factors, treatment using ethnobotanical approach has
gained popularity as an alternative cost-efective approach
[1, 3]. Among the ethnobotanical approaches, the Chinese
herbal medicine has been widely applied. It serves as alterna-
tive complementary medicine, probably due to the presence
of complete pharmacopeia of the herbs established over
more than 5000 years of traditional use. Currently, in many
healthcare facilities in China, traditional Chinese medicine
is being applied in complement to Western medicine [4].
Typical in most traditional Chinese medicines, the formu-
lation consists of multiple herbs concoction. It has been
suggested that the combination of herbs with the various
combinations of natural ingredients may produce synergistic
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Volume 2017, Article ID 6125829, 7 pages
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2017/6125829