Effect of Teucrium stocksianum on paracetamol-induced hepatotoxicity in mice

1. Hepatoprotective activity of an ethanolic extract of Teucrium stocksianum was investigated against paracetamol-induced hepatic damage in mice. 2. Paracetamol at an oral dose of 0.6 g/kg produced about 94% mortality in mice while pretreatment with the plant extract (0.5 and 1 g/kg for 5 days) reduced the death rate to 0%. 3. Paracetamol (0.6 g/kg, orally) produced liver damage as manifested by significant rises in liver weight, plasma aspartate aminotransferase (AST) activity and bilirubin concentration, pentobarbitone-induced sleeping time, and by the significant depletion of reduced glutathione (GSH) in the liver. 4. Pretreatment of mice with T. stocksianum at the above doses significantly ameliorated all the paracetamol-induced signs of liver damage described above. 5. T. stocksianum did not produce any lethality or adverse effects in the livers of treated mice. 6. These results indicate that T. stocksianum ethanolic extract contains hepatoprotective constituents, and suggest further work on the isolation and characterization of these constituents which may potentially be used as hepatoprotective agents.