Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine Volume 2011 (2011), Article ID 142739, 8 pages doi:10.1155/2011/142739
Hepatoprotective Activity of Dried- and Fermented-Processed Virgin Coconut Oil
1Department of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health Science, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
2Faculty of Pharmacy, Universiti Teknologi MARA, 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia
3Pharmacogenomics Center, Faculty of Pharmacy, Universiti Teknologi MARA, 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia
4Biotechnology Research Centre, Malaysian Agriculture Research Institute, 50744 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Received 4 September 2010; Revised 17 December 2010; Accepted 25 December 2010
Copyright © 2011 Z. A. Zakaria et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
The present study aims to determine the hepatoprotective effect of MARDI-produced virgin coconut oils, prepared by dried- or fermented-processed methods, using the paracetamol-induced liver damage in rats. Liver injury induced by 3 g/kg paracetamol increased the liver weight per 100 g bodyweight indicating liver damage. Histological observation also confirms liver damage indicated by the presence of inflammations and necrosis on the respective liver section. Interestingly, pretreatment of the rats with 10, but not 1 and 5, mL/kg of both VCOs significantly (P<.05) reduced the liver damage caused by the administration of paracetamol, which is further confirmed by the histological findings. In conclusion, VCO possessed hepatoprotective effect that requires further in-depth study.
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