Herbal Artichoke Inhibits the Parameters Associated with the Onset of Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) in Vivo and Human Study

By Kyle J. Norton

Non-alcoholic liver disease is a medical condition caused by excessive fat accumulated in the liver of people who drink little or no alcohol.

Believe or not, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) now becomes a universal disorder and the most common liver disease in the Western world.

According to the statistics in 2015, approximately, 20 to 30% of the general population in the Western world suffer from NAFLD. The prevalent rate is substantially higher in the population with type 2 diabetes mellitus (70%) and morbid obesity (90%). 

Some researchers in the assessment of the relationship of widespread obesity in risk of NAFLD suggested that non-alcoholic fatty liver disease may be caused by the promotion of the Western diet over the past few decades.

Dr. Kristen Stephenson, in the assessment of the impact of dietary fat on the development of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in animal model wrote, "WD mouse models consisting of high fat, cholesterol, and a combination of high-fructose corn syrup, sucrose, fructose, or glucose not only lead to metabolic syndrome but also induce NAFLD with fibrosis".

Artichoke is a perennial thistle of Cynara cardunculus species of the Cynara genus, belonging to the family Carduoideae native to Southern Europe around the Mediterranean.

The herbal plant has been used in traditional medicine as liver protective and detoxified agent, and to treat digestive disorders, abdominal pain gas and bloating, etc.

Researcher on finding a natural therapeutic for the treatment of Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), the most common cause of chronic liver disease worldwide investigated the artichoke leaf extract (ALE) therapeutic utility in patients with established NAFLD. 

The randomized double-blind placebo-controlled parallel-group trial included 100 subjects with ultrasound-diagnosed NAFLD randomized to either ALE 600 mg daily or placebo for a 2-month period.

Compared to the control, the ALE treatment group showed increased hepatic vein flow, reduced portal vein diameter and liver size, according to the Doppler sonography. In other words, ALE treatment improved liver function.

Inflammatory and oxidative stress such as serum ALT, AST levels and total bilirubin were also decreased upon the injection of ALE observed by the improved AST/ALT ratio.

Furthermore, ALE supplementation also reduced total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and triglyceride concentrations. All these parameters were elevated in patients with NAFLD.

Dr. Panahi Y, the lead scientist, after taking into account other factors, wrote, " This study has shown beneficial effects of ALE supplementation on both ultrasound liver parameters and liver serum parameters (ALT, AST, APRI ratio, and total bilirubin) in patients with NAFLD".

In order to reveal more information about artichoke anti NAFLD activity, researchers elucidated the physiological responses and mechanisms of JA intervention with a comprehensive transcriptome analysis.

The study included Wistar rats fed a control diet, a 60 % fructose-enriched diet (FRU), or an FRU with 10 % JA (n 6-7) for 4 weeks with an oral glucose tolerance test was carried out on day 21. 

According to the assays, dietary JA supplementation improved the IR and hepatic TAG accumulation induced by the Fructose feeding.

JA also inhibited the gene expression of malic enzyme 1 (Me1), associated with fatty acid synthesis; decorin (Dcn), related to fibrosis; and cytochrome P450, family 1, subfamily a, polypeptide 2 (Cyp1a2) and nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase (Nampt), associated with inflammation.

Based on these results, researchers proposed that 10 % of JA supplementation may be beneficial for the prevention of the onset of NAFLD.

Taken altogether, artichoke may be considered a functional remedy for the treatment of NAFLD with no side effects, pending to the validation 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) Efficacy of artichoke leaf extract in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: A pilot double-blind randomized controlled trial by Panahi Y1, Kianpour P2, Mohtashami R3, Atkin SL4, Butler AE5, Jafari R6, Badeli R7, Sahebkar A. (PubMed)
(2) Beneficial effects of soluble dietary Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus) in the prevention of the onset of type 2 diabetes and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in high-fructose diet-fed rats by Chang WC1, Jia H2, Aw W2, Saito K2, Hasegawa S3, Kato H. (PubMed)
(3) Updates on Dietary Models of Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease: Current Studies and Insights by Kristen Stephenson,* 1 Lindsey Kennedy,†‡ 1 Laura Hargrove,‡ Jennifer Demieville,†Joanne Thomson,† Gianfranco Alpini,*†‡ and Heather Francis. (PMC)