DOI: 10.21276/sajp.2017.6.1

Pages: 1-3

The Pistia stratiotes, called as water lettuce or water cabbage belonging to the family Araceae. The leaves of Pistia stratiotes contain alkaloids, glycosides, flavonoids and phytosterols. The aim of the study is to investigate the hepatoprotective activity against paracetamol induced liver damage in rats. Male Wistar albino rats overdosed with paracetamol showed liver damage as specified by increased serum levels of aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, alkaline phosphatase, total bilrubin and decreased activities of total protein compared with the control group. Administration of silymarin and ethanolic root extract of Pistia stratiotes (200mg/kg) with paracetamol reversed the elevated levels of aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, alkaline phosphatase, total bilrubin and restored the decreased total protein level. The effect produced by the leaf extract of Pistia stratiotes was comparable with that of silymarin. From the result it was concluded that, the ethanolic leaf extract of Pistia stratiotes exhibited hepatoprotective and the probable mechanism of action may be due to the presence of flavonoids.