Collard Greens, the Vegetable which Protects the Liver Against Liver Diseases

Kyle J. Norton

The liver is the largest internal organ found in the human which only plays an essential role in filtering the blood coming from the digestive system before passing them to other parts of the body but produces cholesterol, a waxy substance which aids digestion, builds cell membranes and produces vitamin D and steroid hormones.

Liver disease is a class of medical condition characterized by the reducing partly or completely the function of the liver.

According to the Canadian Liver Association, approximately, one in ten Canadians, or more than three million people, have some form of liver disease. Chronic hepatitis B and C, alcoholic liver disease, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, and liver cancer account for more than 95% of deaths from liver disease.
Most common untreated liver disease has been found to induce major complications of cirrhosis associated with the severe formation of liver scars, including
*Ascites is the accumulation of protein-containing (ascitic) fluid within the abdomen caused by high blood pressure in the veins that bring blood to the liver due to liver cirrhosis.

* Spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP) is an infection of ascitic fluid which has been found in people with cirrhosis.


* Hepatic encephalopathy is a spectrum of neuropsychiatric abnormalities in patients with liver dysfunction, particularly in patients with cirrhosis.

* Portal hypertension is the condition characterized by increasing blood pressure within a system of veins called the portal venous system.
* Variceal bleeding is a condition of the abnormal and impaired flow of blood through the liver.
* Hepatorenal syndrome is a condition associated with impaired kidney function in individuals with advanced liver disease.
Most common symptoms of liver disease are jaundice, abdominal pain and swelling, swelling in the legs and ankles, itchy skin, dark urine color, pale stool color, or bloody or tar-colored stool, chronic fatigue and nausea or vomiting.

Collard Green is a species of Brassica Oleracea, belongings to the family Brassicaceae with unknown origin. Today, the plant is cultivated commercially for its thick, slightly bitter edible leaves.

On finding a potent compound for the treatment of liver diseases, researchers examined the liver protective property of the ethanol extract of the powdered inflorescences of collard greens.

According to the tested analysis, all the extracts showed a significant decrease in the liver enzymes associated with liver damage given before the extract (therapeutic) or after the extract (prophylactic).

Furthermore, the prophylactic activity associated with the protection of the liver of the extracts was better than the curative effect.

In vivo, pretreatment of rats with different extracts (1 g/kg) for seven days prior to a single dose of paracetamol (2 g/kg), normalized the hepatic lobules found in the petroleum ether extract, ethyl acetate combined with ethanol extract and chloroform extract, compared to untreated rats.

According to the results of rats that were given a single dose of paracetamol (2 g/kg) followed by the extracts (1 g/kg) for seven days, swelling, degeneration in the hepatocytes and congestion in the center were inhibited by the injection of the extracts in some rats.

These results strongly suggested that collard greens process a strong hepatoprotective activity against liver damage.

Taken altogether, collard green may be considered supplements for the prevention and treatment of liver damage in the initiation of liver diseases, 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 activity of Brassica oleracea L. var . Italica by FatmaA Hashem, HemaiaM Motawea, , Abdel RahmanE El-Shabrawy, and SamarM El-Sherbini. (Research Gate)