CHAPTER - 10
IN VIVO EXPERIMENTS
10.1 INTRODUCTION
Mistletoes are an important group of plants possessing a range of important pharmacological activities. For example Viscum album is reported to possess significant immunomodulatory, cytotoxicity (anticancer), hypotensive, anti-diabetic and anti-microbial properties (Arndt B, 2004b). Though these types of plants are mentioned in Ayurveda (Banda, Vrikshadani) and other folklore medicines (Kirtikar and Basu, 1935), Indian species have not been subjected to detailed exploratory studies to a significant extent. In India, as already mentioned in literature review, 6 mistletoes, two belonging to the genus Loranthus and four belonging to the genus Viscum are considered to be medicinal, and being used…show more content… The animals were fasted overnight and provided with water ad libitum and divided into 4 groups of three animals each. The alcohol and the aqueous extracts were suspended in 1% sodium carboxyl methyl cellulose (SCMC) (Sanjeev et al., 2013). The starting dose level of aqueous and alcoholic extracts of H. elastica was 2000 mg/kg body weight p.o. as most of the crude extracts possess LD50 value more than 2000…show more content… 11.3 HEPATO-PROTECTIVE ACTIVITY
10.3.1 INTRODUCTION
Liver disease is one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality affecting humans of all ages. Liver, by virtue of central role in the metabolism of a large number of organic and inorganic chemicals and drugs is vulnerable to injury and in addition, number of risk factors. Toxic liver injury produced by drugs and chemicals may virtually mimic any form of naturally occurring liver diseases. Hepatotoxicity from the drugs and chemicals is the commonest form of iatrogenic disease.
Only symptomatic relief is achieved through corticosteroids or immunosuppressive agents without any modification in the course of disease. On the other hand, herbal drugs play a major role in the management of various liver disorders most of which speed up the natural healing processes of the liver (Arvind et al., 2008). At present the focus is on drug used in different traditional systems which ascribe hepatoprotective activity to a number of preparations
based on natural products. Numerous medicinal plants and their formulations are used for liver disorders in ethnomedical practice as well as traditional system of medicine in