Bilberry, the Potential Hepato-protective Functional Remedy, Researchers Say

By Kyle J. Norton

Bilberry may be used for the prevention and treatment of liver diseases with no side effects, according to studies.

Liver diseases are a medical condition in which the liver functions are reduced. In severe cases, liver diseases can induce liver failure.

The function of the liver is to filter out the blood from the digestive system before passing them to the cells and other parts of the body.

The largest organ also has a unique function in detoxifying the toxin in medications and drugs.

Furthermore, in the detoxification perspective, the liver also deactivates toxins by breaking down the toxins debris into a form that can be removed by the body.

Moreover, the organ performs the function of recycling old blood cells.

According to the statistics provided by the CDC and the American Liver Foundation, cirrhosis is a common liver disease which causes the death of over 31,000 people in the U.S. each year

The increase in age, gender, exposure to hepatitis viral occupation, being overweight or obese, high
blood cholesterol, hypertriglyceridemia, diabetes and long term use of certain medication such as
corticosteroids, prednisone, hydrocortisone are some prevalent risk factor of liver diseases.

In the US, the hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is the leading cause of cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

Dr. Vikas Khullar, the lead scientist in the examination of hepatitis C in risk of liver diseases wrote, "Despite recent advances in drugs for the treatment of hepatitis C, predictive models estimate the incidence of cirrhosis due to hepatitis C infection will continue to rise for the next two decades".

And, "There is currently an immense interest in the treatment of patients with fibrosis and early-stage cirrhosis as treatment can lead to decrease in the rates of decompensated cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma and need for liver transplantation in these patients".

Bilberry is a species of low-growing shrubs in the genus Vaccinium, belonging to the family Ericaceae, native to Northern Europe.

The herbal plant has been used as foods and herbs in traditional medicine for the treatment of acute and chronic diarrhea, gastritis, gastric ulcer, and duodenal ulcer, enterocolitis, ulcerative colitis, anemia, cystitis, kidney disease, and psoriasis, diabetes, etc.

Researchers with an aim to find a natural compound which processes liver protective effects investigated the bilberry extract against the 18 h restraint stress-induced serious liver damage in the animal models.

Restraint mice before injection of bilberry extract showed increased malondialdehyde (MDA) levels and lower oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) values in plasma and liver.

Oral administration of bilberry extract, containing 42.04% anthocyanins) in mice at 50, 100, and 200 mg/(kg x day) for five days, remarkably decreased plasma ALT level to 17.23 +/- 2.49 U/L at the dose of 200 mg/(kg x day) and alleviated stress-induced liver damage.

Furthermore, the injection of the extract also bilberry increased antioxidant enzymes produced by the host such as glutathione (GSH) and vitamin C and significantly decreased the oxidative stress marker MDA and levels of free radicals such as nitric oxide (NO) in the liver tissues.

The findings strongly suggested that bilberry extract protects the liver against restraint stress by both scavenging free radicals activity and lipid peroxidation inhibitory effect.

Moreover, in rats induced liver damage by carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) divided into four groups: Group I (0.9% NaCl-10days), Group II (bilberry extract, 75mg/kg-10days), Group III (0,9% NaCl-9days, and on the tenth day CCl4-2ml/kg), Group IV (bilberry extract, 75mg/kg-10days and on the tenth day CCl4-2ml/kg)., researchers found that

* Injection of bilberry extract significant decreases the activity of biochemical parameters associated with liver damage, such as AST, GGT, LDH, and ALT, levels of the pro-oxidative enzyme such as xanthine oxidase, and the level of lipid peroxidation in the liver in Group IV.

* Application of bilberry extract also resulted in an increase in the number of apoptotic liver damage cells by the activity of the apoptotic protein in the liver tissue.

Dr. Popović D, the lead scientist after taking into account co and confounders wrote at the end of the experiment, "Anthocyanins from bilberry extract have strong antioxidant properties and therefore can be considered as powerful hepatoprotectives in natural products".

Taken altogether, bilberry may be considered a liver protective functional remedy for the prevention and treatment of liver damage and diseases pending to the confirmation of larger sample size and multicenter human study.

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Author Biography
Kyle J. Norton (Scholar, Master of Nutrition, All right reserved)
Health article writer and researcher; Over 10.000 articles and research papers have been written and published online, including worldwide health, ezine articles, article base, health blogs, self-growth, best before it's news, the karate GB daily, etc.,.
Named TOP 50 MEDICAL ESSAYS FOR ARTISTS & AUTHORS TO READ by Disilgold.com Named 50 of the best health Tweeters Canada - Huffington Post
Nominated for shorty award over last 4 years
Some articles have been used as references in medical research, such as international journal Pharma and Bioscience, ISSN 0975-6299.

References

(1) Antioxidant and hepatoprotective activity of Fagonia schweinfurthii (Hadidi) Hadidi extract in carbon tetrachloride induced hepatotoxicity in HepG2 cell line and rats by Pareek A1, Godavarthi A, Issarani R, Nagori BP. (PubMed)
(2) Protective effects of bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus L.) extract on restraint stress-induced liver damage in mice by Bao L1, Yao XS, Yau CC, Tsi D, Chia CS, Nagai H, Kurihara H. (PubMed)
(3) Hepatitis C cirrhosis: New perspectives for diagnosis and treatment by Vikas Khullar and Roberto J Firpi. (PMC)