A Review On Herbal Plants And Bio Active Chemicals For Their Hepatoprotective Activity

Liver, the largest gland functioning as an organ of storage, manufacturing and biotransformation is a vulnerable target for injury. Chronic alcohol consumption, exposure to toxic chemicals and certain drugs like paracetamol, tetracycline, antitubercular drugs, chemotherapeutic agents, NSAIDS, damage the liver cells (hepatocytes) in long run. Drug induced liver injury is a major health problem, the manifestations of which are highly variable, ranging from asymptomatic elevation of liver enzymes to fulminant liver failure. Modern medicine has provided us many drugs that alleviate liver diseases but compared to it herbal medicine is preferred because the latter is cost effective and considered to be a safe approach for treatment with minimal side effects. Through the decades many scientists, researchers have reported hepatoprotective activity of many medicinal plants mostly in the form of plant extracts. The present review is aimed at compiling data on different medicinal plants with hepatoprotective activity on various models of hepatotoxicity.