Abstract Cucurbita pepo, is widely used like food and in folk medicine around of the world. This aims a comprehensive of the pharmacological, chemical constituents, and clinical uses. Also have been identified the medicinally important phyto-constituents belonging mainly to cucurbitosides, multiflorane-type triterpenoids, carotenoids, ent-kauranetype diterpene, and cucurbitaglycosides. Extracts...

The Cistanche species ("Rou Cong Rong" in Chinese) is an endangered wild species growing in arid or semi-arid areas. The dried fleshy stem of Cistanches has been used as a tonic in China for many years. Modern pharmacological studies have since demonstrated that Herba Cistanches possesses broad medicinal functions, especially for use in anti-senescence, anti-oxidation, neuroprotection, anti-inf...

In order to contribute to the exploitation and utilization of spent mushroom substrates (SMS) of Laetiporus sulphureus, hot-water-extractable polysaccharides (H-SMPS) and enzymatic-extractable polysaccharides (E-SMPS) were successfully isolated from SMS of L. sulphureus. Both H-SMPS and E-SMPS were found to have high reducing power and potential scavenging activities against hydroxyl, DPPH, and...

We examined the effect of dietary nicotinic acid (NA) variations before and after oxidative stress (OS) treatment on the antioxidant defence system, function and morphology of the liver along with Zn status in rats. OS was generated by three intraperitoneal injections of tert-butyl hydroperoxide in the first week for the pre-exposure group and in the third week for the post-exposure group, resp...

We investigated the protective effects of Gymnaster koraiensis against oxidative stress-induced hepatic cell damage. We used two different cytotoxicity models, i.e., the administration of tert-butyl hydroperoxide (t-BHP) and acetaminophen, in HepG2 cells to evaluate the protective effects of G. koraiensis. The ethyl acetate (EA) fraction of G. koraiensis and its major compound, 3,5-di-O-caffeoy...

Acute Cd exposure produces liver injury, whereas chronic Cd exposure damages the kidney but not the liver. Previous experiments suggest that the low-molecular-weight, metal-binding protein metallothionein (MT) in liver protects against liver injury, but is responsible for the kidney injury observed after chronic Cd exposure. Thus, prior to the development of MT-transgenic and MT-knockout mice m...

A variety of rodent models of hepatoprotection have been developed in which tolerance to acetaminophen-induced hepatotoxicity occurs. Autoprotection/heteroprotection is a phenomenon where prior exposure to a mildly toxic dose of toxicant confers protection against a subsequently administered higher dose of the same toxicant (as in the case of autoprotection) or to a different toxicant (referred...

The pregnane X receptor (PXR, NR1I2) is a member of the nuclear receptor superfamily that is activated by a myriad of compounds and natural products in clinical use. Activation of PXR represents the basis for several clinically important drug-drug interactions. Although PXR activation has undesirable effects in patients on combination therapy, it also mediates the hepatoprotective effects exhib...

Plants play an indispensable part in the environment, especially as a medication to protect man from intrinsic and extrinsic ill effects imparted by stress agents. In tune with the search of antioxidant-rich plants, the leaves of Zea mays were analyzed for its antioxidant potential at three different stages of growth. The effect of the leaf extract on the oxidant stress induced in in vitro syst...