Anticarcinogenic biological response of Mikania cordata: reflections in hepatic biotransformation systems

The chemopreventive role of an Indian medicinal plant Mikania cordata (Compositae), which is consumed as vegetable and advocated in folk-medicine, has been evaluated through its effects on Phase 1 and 2 of the hepatic drug-detoxifying enzyme system in rats. Although oral administration of a methanolic extract of this plant root (50, 100 or 150 mg/kg for 4, 8 or 12 weeks) has been found to have very little or no effect on hepatic microsomal cytochrome P-450 and cytochrome b5 contents as well as NADPH cytochrome c reductase activity, it afforded a marked induction of uridine diphosphoglucuronyl transferase activities of liver microsomes. The extract also significantly increased the activities of microsomal uridine diphosphoglucose dehydrogenase, reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (phosphate): quinine reductase and cytosolic glutathione s-transferases with a concomittant elevation in the contents of reduced glutathione. All these effects were found to be dose-dependent and maintained during 12 weeks of the extract treatment. Results of the study clearly indicate that the intracellular contents of active intermediates of various xenobiotics including chemical carcinogens would be reduced by the specific enhancement of drug-detoxifying enzymes in the liver of rats treated with the plant extract.