Bioactive phenolic compounds from hepatoprotective plants: extraction, identification and isolation
Conference Paper
Overview
Overview
abstract
The liver is the largest and one of the most important organs in human body, being involved in
several vital functions and regulation of physiological processes. It has a pivotal role in the
excretion of waste metabolites and detoxification of a variety of drugs, xenobiotics and toxins,
which makes it a vulnerable target of injury caused by toxic chemicals and free radicals capable
of binding to cellular macromolecules such as DNA, lipids, proteins, or carbohydrates and
produce major interrelated derangement of cell metabolism [1, 2]. Liver injuries are among the
most serious ailments, remaining one of the major threats to public health and the conventional
treatments of liver diseases are frequently inadequate due to side effects caused by hepatotoxic
chemical drugs [3]. To overcome this problematic paradox, medicinal plants have been
intensively exploited in what concerns their extracts and fractions composition in order to find
bioactive molecules, such as phenolic compounds, that could be isolated and applied in the
treatment of liver diseases. In the present work, the aim was to collect the main results of recent
studies carried out in this field and systematize the information for a better understanding of the
hepatoprotective capacity of medicinal plants on in vitro and in vivo systems. In a general way,
the results obtained with the extracts of the studied plants justified the worthiness of the
fractionation and further isolation of phenolic compounds from different parts of the plant.
Twenty-five phenolic compounds, including eight flavonoids, two lignan compounds, eight
phenolic acids and seven other phenolic compounds, were isolated and identified, and proved
to be effective in the prevention and/or treatment of chemically induced liver damage. In this
perspective, the use of medicinal plant extracts, fractions, and phenolic compounds seems to
be a promising strategy to avoid side effects caused by hepatotoxic chemicals.
