Ameliorative Effect of Pine Needle Oil on Liver Protection and Lipid Metabolism of Alcohol Fed Rats

The effect of treatment with pine needle oil upon rat hepatocytes exposed to alcohol was investigated. The body weight gain, ratio of liver and kidney to body weight, and serum biochemistry of rats administered both alcohol and pine needle oil were compared to control rats treated with alcohol alone. Normal untreated control rats, negative control rats with ethanol treatment, positive control rats with both alcohol and the commercially available hangover cure solution (HCS) treatment and the test group with both alcohol and pine needle oil treatment exhibited aspartate aminotransferase (AST) levels of $84.43{\pm}47.88\;U/L$, $254.57{\pm}463.20\;U/L$, $70.29{\pm}12.60\;U/L$ and $67.00{\pm}5.06\;U/L$, respectively, and cholesterol levels of $95.71{\pm}6.86\;mg/dl$, $113.80{\pm}38.19\;mg/dl$, $91.57{\pm}6.30\;mg/dl$ and $82.29{\pm}4.98\;mg/dl$, respectively. Alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels were $44.00{\pm}9.04\;U/L$ in normal untreated control rats, increased to $215.43{\pm}428.93\;U/L$ with the administration of ethanol, but interestingly were significantly reduced to $37.83{\pm}6.57\;U/L$ in the test group (p<0.05). Triglyceride (TG) levels were $39.57{\pm}8.62\;mg/dl$ in normal untreated rats, increased to $73.71{\pm}61.20\;mg/dl$ in rats administered alcohol, but were reduced to $26.14{\pm}4.82\;mg/dl$ in the test group (p<0.0l). The pine needle oil treatment significantly reduced the levels of AST, ALT and TG compared to the control rats. These results indicate that pine needle oil can positively mediate the effects of alcohol on hepatocytes and general liver functions.