• Journal of Life Science
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.405-414
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• 2001

Protaetia brevitarsis has been utilized as an ingredient of the description for the treatment of patients with chronic hepatic diseases in oriental medicine. This study was attempted to investigate whether Protaetia brevitarsis extract(PBE) protects or modulates the liver injuries induced by carbon tetrachloride or ethanol in Sprageue-Dawley rate. The liver injuries of rats induced by the treatment of carbon tetrachloride or ethanol were manifested by the observation of the significant changes in liver weight, serum aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) activities, serum thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS), and microsomal detocification enzymes(cytochrome P_450), cytochrome b$_{5}$, and cytochrome b$_{5}$ reductase).The effect of PBF on the liver damage induced by the chemicals was evaluated with the extent modulated in change of biochemical parameters above. Exposure to ethanol alone resulted a significant change in the ration of liver per body weight, ALT activity, and microsomal detoxification enzymes (cytochrome P_450, cytochrome b$_{5}$, and cytochrome b$_{5}$ reductase), but did not significantly changes in the levels of serum AST activity and TBARS. Pretreatment coith PBE did not modulate the alteration of the ratio of liver to body weigth, and the activities of serum aminotransferascs (AST. ALT), TBARS, and micro somal detoxification enzyme (cytochrome p_450, cytochrome b$_{5}$,and cytochrome b$_{5}$ reductase. These result suggested that PBE has not appreciable therapeutic effect on carbon tetrachloride or ethanol induced hepatotoxicity.