Asian Journal
Of Traditional Medicines

Abstract: The hepatoprotective activities and possible mechanisms of action of African red palm oil extract (ARPO), an oily preparation of Elaeis guineensis Jacq., were investigated in acute hepatocellular injuries induced by 800 mg/kg of acetaminophen (APAP [this does not seem to me to be a rerasonable abbreviation. APHEN or ACPH might be better.]) injected intraperitoneally (IP) into Wistar rats. Its hepatoprotective activities were monitored by assaying for serum alanine (ALT) and aspartate (AST) aminotransferases and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and histopathological hepatic lesions 24 hr post-APAP induction. Each group of six rats was given 1.5 mL/kg ARPO IP co-administered with 800 mg/kg APAP IP and then treated with 1.5 mL/kg IP ARPO at 1 and 2 hr, respectively [I do not understand the “respectively” here. Were the rats treated at both 1 and 2 hr or one group treated at 1 hr and the other at 2? Reconfigure the sentence (or 2 sentences) to make this clear and possibly the “respectively” will not be needed.]. ARPO treatment significantly attenuated (p<0.05) the acute elevations of the liver enzymes and hepatocytes necrosis in both groups due to the APAP induction. However, ARPO was not hepatoprotective in rats pretreated with 1.5 mL/kg of ARPO at 12 hr pre-APAP induction and 4 hr post APAP induction. These results suggest that ARPO ameliorates the effects of APAP-induced hepatotoxicity when administered up to 2 hr post APAP induction, but does not have prophylactic activity.

Key words: African red palm oil, acetaminophen hepatotoxicity, hepatoprotective activities, Wistar rats