Onion, the Best Liver Protective Healthy Food

By Kyle J. Norton

The liver is the largest internal organ and the only organ in the human body that can regenerate itself.

The liver is the first line of the bodily toxin defense by filtering the blood comes from the digestive tract, before passing them to the rest of the body.

The liver also produces cholesterol that plays a critical role in building a strong cell wall, producing steroid hormones and vitamin D and aiding the digestive function in food absorption and detoxifying chemicals and metabolizes drugs.

The hepatoprotective or liver protective effect is an action that maintains the healthy function of the liver against any harmful toxins.

Symptoms of liver diseases include jaundice, abdominal pain, and swelling, swelling in the legs and ankles, itchy skin, dark urine, and pale stool color, and tendency to bruise easily.

There are no exact causes of liver disease. Viruses, toxins, genetics, alcohol, and unknown causes are some prevalent factors found in patients with chronic liver disease, inclduing cancer.

In the US, most cases of liver disease are a result of hepatitis viral infection and autoimmune diseases. Infectious viral hepatitis can produce toxins to protect them against the antioxidant enzymes produced by the host body and prevent the attack of the systematic immune response.

Furthermore, in recent year, excessive alcohol drinking has been found to induce alcoholic liver disease in many parts of Asia and America.

The onion is a plant in the genus Allium, belongings to the family Alliaceae, a close relation of garlic. It is often called the "king of vegetables" because of its pungent taste and found in a large number of recipes and preparations spanning almost the totality of the world's cultures. 

Depending on the variety, an onion can be sharp, spicy, tangy, pungent, mild or sweet.

On finding a potential compound which processes liver protective activity, researchers examined the effects of onion and garlic extracts on cadmium (Cd)-induced liver oxidative damage in rats.

The study included 

* Cd group was challenged with 3CdSO(4).8H(2)O (as Cd; 1.5 mg/kg bw per day per oral) alone, and  

* The extract-treated groups were pretreated with varying doses of onion and/or garlic extract (0.5 and 1.0 ml/100 g bw per day per oral) for a week and thereafter co-treated with Cd (1.5 mg/kg bw per day per oral) for 3 weeks.

Based on the tested differentiation, Cd group showed a significant increase in the levels of lipid peroxidation and glutathione S-transferase, whereas antioxidant enzymes such as glutathione, superoxide dismutase, and catalase levels were decreased in the liver. 

Furthermore, liver oxidative stress markers such as alanine transaminase (ALT), aspartate transaminase (AST), and alkaline phosphatase were also found to increase in the Cd group.

In other words, Cd showed induced oxidative damage in rat liver.

Injection of garlic and onion extract not only inhibited all parameters in the Cd group but also exerted a liver protective effect in a dose-dependent manner.

Based on the findings, researchers wrote, "high dose of onion and a moderate dose of garlic extracts possibly via reduced lipid peroxidation and enhanced antioxidant defense system that is insufficient to prevent and protect Cd-induced hepatotoxicity".

Taken altogether, onion may be considered a remedy for the prevention and treatment of liver alcoholic cytotoxicity pending to the confirmation of the 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.

Sources
(1) Hepatoprotective effect of quercetin: From chemistry to medicine by Miltonprabu S1, Tomczyk M2, Skalicka-Woźniak K3, Rastrelli L4, Daglia M5, Nabavi SF6, Alavian SM7, Nabavi SM. (PubMed)
(2) Hepatoprotective potentials of onion and garlic extracts on cadmium-induced oxidative damage in rats by Obioha UE1, Suru SM, Ola-Mudathir KF, Faremi TY. (PubMed)