Hepatoprotective effects of Camellia nitidissima aqueous ethanol extract against CCl₄-induced acute liver injury in SD rats related to Nrf2 and NF-κB signalling

Abstract

Context: Camellia nitidissima Chi (Theaceae) is an evergreen shrub, the leaves of which are used in many medicinal applications. Objective: To characterize the chemical composition of a 10% aqueous ethanol extract of C. nitidissima leaves (CNE), and to explore the protective effect of the extract against acute liver injury (ALI) in rats. Materials and methods: Male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into six groups (n ¼ 10): control and negative (0.5% CMC-Na, 5 mL/kg/d), thiopronin (20 mg/kg/d) and CNE (40, 80 and 160 mg/kg/d). All groups were treated for seven consecutive days, and then, except for the control, carbon tetrachloride was administered intraperitoneally. The biochemical parameters, mRNAs, and proteins were analyzed using enzyme-linked immunoassays kits, quantitative polymerase chain reaction and western blot. Chemical components were identified using mass spectroscopy, and the phenol and flavonoid content determined by ultraviolet spectrophotometry. Results: Pre-treatment with CNE (160 mg/kg) attenuated the pathological changes in liver tissues and decreased alanine transaminase (62 and 60%), aspartate transaminase (49 and 53%) and malondialdehyde (35 and 42%) levels in serum and liver tissues. Moreover, CNE reduced the concentrations of reactive oxygen species (55%), tumour necrosis factor-a (26%), interleukin-1b (19%) and IL-6 (19%) and blocked the nuclear translocation of p65. Pre-treatment with CNE increased anti-heme oxygenase-1 (40%), superoxide dismutase (108%) and glutathione (97%) levels through upregulating nuclear factor erythroid-2-related factor 2. Twelve compounds were detected; the content of phenols and flavonoids was determined as 34.474 ± 1.026 and 15.228 ± 0.422 mg/g crude drug in CNE, respectively. Discussion and conclusions: These results suggested that CNE is a promising agent for functional food and hepatoprotective drug against ALI.

Dendrobium officinale Flower Extraction Mitigates Alcohol‐Induced Liver Injury in Mice: Role of Antisteatosis, Antioxidative, and Anti‐Inflammatory

“…Recently, herbal medicines have attracted increasing attention in the treatment of alcoholic liver injury, due to the wide availabilities, multitarget actions, and low side effects [ 14 – 16 ]. Chinese herbal medicines of saponins from the leaves of Panax notoginseng , Camellia nitidissima, and phenol have been used to improve the alcohol-induced liver injury [ 6 , 17 , 18 ].…”

Camellia nitidissima Chi leaf as pancreatic lipase inhibitors: Inhibition potentials and mechanism

“…The result verified that C. nitidissima Chi leaf extraction exhibited a good effect on the inhibition of pancreatic lipase. When compared with C. nitidissima Chi flower extract reported in previous studies, which was more effective than the C. nitidissima Chi leaf extract (Zhang, Feng, et al, 2020; Zhang, Wu, et al., 2020).…”

“…Identification of individual compounds in C. nitidissima Chi leaf extraction was performed by UHPLC–MS/MS, the chromatogram obtained in the UHPLC was shown in Figure 2. Eight compounds were identified in the C. nitidissima Chi leaf extraction which could be seen in Table 1, using UHPLC–MS/MS based on their molecular masses, fragmentation patterns, and literature references (Duc et al, 1993; Karthivashan et al., 2013; Li et al., 2016; Makita et al., 2016; March et al., 2006; Qiu et al., 2015; Taskin et al., 2020; Wang et al., 2016; Zhang, Feng, et al, 2020; Zhang, Wu, et al., 2020). Among these individuals, multiflorin B(5,7‐dihydroxy‐2‐(4‐hydroxyphenyl)‐4‐oxo‐4H‐1‐benzopyran‐3‐yl 6‐deoxy‐4‐O‐β‐D‐glucopyranosyl‐α‐L‐mannopyranoside), kaempferol‐3‐O‐rutinoside, vicenin‐2(5,7‐dihydroxy‐2‐(4‐hydroxyphenyl)‐6,8‐bis[(2S,3R,4R,5S,6R)‐3,4,5‐trihydroxy‐6‐(hydroxymethyl) oxan‐2‐yl] chromen‐4‐one), apigenin‐6‐C‐pentosyl‐8‐C‐hexosyl, vitexin(5,7‐dihydroxy‐2‐(4‐hydroxyphenyl)‐8‐[(2S,3R,4R,5S,6R)‐3,4,5‐trihydroxy‐6‐(hydroxymethyl) oxan‐2‐yl] chromen‐4‐one), kaempferol, vinaginsenoside R9(2‐[4,5‐dihydroxy‐2‐[[12‐hydroxy‐17‐[5‐hydroxy‐6‐methyl‐2‐[3,4,5‐trihydroxy‐6‐(hydroxymethyl)oxan‐2‐yl]oxyhept‐6‐en‐2‐yl]‐4,4,8,10,14‐pentamethyl‐2,3,5,6,7,9,11,12,13,15,16,17‐dodecahydro‐1H‐cyclopenta[a]phenanthren‐3‐yl]oxy]‐6‐(hydroxymethyl)oxan‐3‐yl]oxy‐6‐(hydroxymethyl)oxane‐3,4,5‐triol), and 20‐glc‐ginsenoside Rf((2S,3R,4S,5S,6R)‐2‐[(2R,3R,4S,5S,6R)‐2‐[[(6R,10R,12S,14R,17S)‐3,12‐dihydroxy‐4,4,10,14,15‐pentamethyl‐17‐[(2S)‐6‐methyl‐2‐[(2S,3R,4S,5S,6R)‐3,4,5‐trihydroxy‐6‐(hydroxymethyl)oxan‐2‐yl]oxyhept‐5‐en‐2‐yl]‐1,2,3,5,6,7,8,9,11,12,13,15,16,17‐tetradecahydrocyclopenta[a]phenanthren‐6‐yl]oxy]‐4,5‐dihydroxy‐6‐(hydroxymethyl)oxan‐3‐yl]oxy‐6‐(hydroxymethyl)oxane‐3,4,5‐triol) or its isomer appeared to be the main components in C. nitidissima Chi leaf extracts.…”

“…Camellia nitidissima Chi which was a genus of camellia in the Theaceae family and mainly distributed in southern Guangxi province of China and Vietnam which is the region bordering Guangxi province (Zhang, Wu, et al., 2020, Zhang, Feng, et al, 2020). It is the only rare species in the Camellia family with golden petals (Zhou et al., 2013), and has high ornamental and medicinal value (Wang et al., 2016).…”

Puerarin Prevents Acute Liver Injury via Inhibiting Inflammatory Responses and ZEB2 Expression

“…In addition, the results of recent studies have shown that the pathogenesis of ALI can be blocked by the inhibition of inflammatory responses (Starkey Lewis et al, 2020). In summary, anti-inflammatory therapies are effective in treating ALI (Chen et al, 2020;Zhang et al, 2020). It is, however, necessary to clarify the underlying mechanism of effective targets for ALI caused by sepsis in view of the fact that there is no current effective treatment for ALI (Bae et al, 2018).…”