Phytochemical Betanin, Protects the Liver Against Toxicity in Vivo, Scientists Found

By Kyle J. Norton

Scientists may have found a bioactive ingredient for the treatment of liver toxicity with no side effects, according to studies.

Acute liver toxicity is a condition characterized by the harmful effects of a substance or organism induced by a single or short-term exposure.

Liver toxicity, on the hand, is caused by long term exposure to a substance or substances, including alcohol inducing the destruction and interruption of liver tissues regeneration, leading to fibrosis and cirrhosis.

The liver is the largest internal organs with the self-regenerative property. It only plays an essential role in the production of bile to aid digestive functioning, but also filters out blood from the digestive system before passing them back to the heart and other parts of the body.

Most common chronic liver diseases in the Western world are non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and hepatitis C infection.

According to statistics, NAFLD affects 75 to 100 million Americans in 2017.  Approximately 80% of obese and 20% of normal-weight people have NAFLD.

Believe it or not, nearly 2.4 million Americans or 1 percent of the adult population were living with hepatitis C.

A most common cause of acute liver toxicity is Acetaminophen overdose in the United States, leading to acute liver failure.

Dr. Flores YN, the lead scientist in the examination of risk factors for liver disease among Mexican adults in the US and Mexico wrote, "excessive alcohol consumption is a risk factor for liver disease, but only 60% correctly identified hepatitis C, being overweight or obese, or having diabetes as risk factors".

And, " Identifying the specific risk factors, levels of knowledge and prevention activities that affect specific racial/ethnic populations is important in order to effectively target efforts to prevent liver disease".

Betanin is phytochemical in the class of red and yellow indole-derived pigments of Betacyanins, belonging to the group of Betalains, found abundantly in beets, chard, etc.

With an aim to find a natural compound for the protection of liver against toxicity researchers examined the betanin (a natural pigment) mitigated effect in Organophosphates (OP)-induced hepatotoxicity in primary rat hepatocytes.

Administration of betanin (25μM) significantly increased liver cell viability, inhibited the expression of ROS formation and LPO, restored cellular antioxidant levels.

When it was used alone, betanin protected the liver against OPs-induced hepatotoxicity through inhibition of oxidative stress and mitochondrial protection against inflammation.

In order to reveal more information about betanin (from natural pigments) anti-oxidant properties against paraquat-induced liver injury in an animal model.

The study included rats randomly divided into four groups: a control group, a paraquat group, and two groups that received betanin at doses of 25 and 100mg/kg/day three days before and two days after they were administered paraquat.

Paraquat-induced liver toxicity in Sprague-Dawley rats without treatment of betanin showed significant liver toxicity observed by elevated serum aspartate aminotransferase and alanine aminotransferase levels and an increase of enzyme associated with phase I drug metabolism reactions.

In other words, the injection of paraquat led to an unbalanced ratio of free radicals and deleted antioxidant enzymes produced by the host evidenced by levels of oxidative stress.

Injection of betanin not only inhibited the historical change and the aforementioned conditions, but the phytochemical also protected the liver cells against mitochondrial damage and apoptosis-inducing factor protein levels.

Dr. Han J, the lead scientist based on the finding wrote in the final report, "Betanin had a protective effect against paraquat-induced liver damage in rats. The mechanism of the protection appears to be the inhibition of CYP 3A2 expression and protection of mitochondria".

Taken altogether, betanin may be considered supplements for the treatment of acute liver toxicity, pending to the confirmation of the larger sample size and multicenter human study.

Intake of betanin in the form of supplement should be taken with extreme care to prevent overdose acute liver toxicity.

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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.

Sources
(1) Betanin reduces organophosphate induced cytotoxicity in primary hepatocyte via an anti-oxidative and mitochondrial dependent pathway by Ahmadian E1, Khosroushahi AY2, Eghbal MA3, Eftekhari A. (PubMed)
(2) Betanin attenuates paraquat-induced liver toxicity through a mitochondrial pathway by Han J1, Zhang Z2, Yang S2, Wang J2, Yang X2, Tan D. (PubMed)
(3) Risk factors for liver disease and associated knowledge and practices among Mexican adults in the US and Mexico by Flores YN1, Lang CM, Salmerón J, Bastani R. (PubMed)