Abstract
Hovenia dulcis which is distributed in Korea, China and Japan is known to show hepatoprotctive effect and reduce the acute alcohol toxicity. In this study, the hepatoprotective effect against the chemically induced experimental liver injury models and lowering effect of blood alcohol level in animal models acutely administered alcohol by the peduncle extracts of Hovenia dulcis var. koreana were investigated. HdfHW-1, and HdfM-1 which are the extracts of fruit peduncles and young branches with hot water or 70％ methanol and followed with 100％ methanol, were significantly reduced the $CCl_4$ or D-galactosamine/LPS induced damage in sliced liver. The hot water or methanol extracts of fruit peduncle protected dose-dependently against $CCl_4$ induced toxicity in primary hepatocyte culture and particularly, the amount of LDH release was reduced to the control level at 500 $\mu\textrm{g}$/ml of hot water extracts. HdfHW-1 also decreased the hepatotoxicity induced by $CCl_4$ in rats. The active components of HdfHW-1 seemed to be high molecular weights because 0.2 M NaCl HdfHW-1 fraction was the most effective among NaCl fractions of HdfHW-1 eluted with various concentrations of NaCl on DEAE 650C column chromatography. HdfM and HdfHW were significantly reduced the levels of blood alcohol in rats and mice administered 40％ alcohol. These results indicated that the hot water or methanol extracts of fruit peduncle of Hovenia dulcis var. koreana have hepatoprotective effect and may be reduce alcohol toxicity.
