Herbal Elecampane (Inula helenium) Displays a Strong Hepatoprotective Effect

By Kyle J. Norton

The liver is the largest internal organ in the human body and the only organ which can regenerate itself. The liver is the first line of the bodily toxin defense by filtering the blood that comes from the digestive tract, before passing it to the rest of the body.

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

Furthermore, the liver also processes a function of detoxifying chemicals and metabolizes drugs.

The hepatoprotective or liver protective effect is an action that maintains the liver's healthy functioning 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 a 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, including cancer.

Liver damage and disease can also be caused by long-term intake of certain medications, such as paracetamol and Illegal drugs such as cocaine.

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

Some researchers suggested overweight and obesity and congenital diseases such as Hemochromatosis and Wilson’s disease also are the prevalent risk factors of liver damage and diseases.

On finding a natural ingredient for the prevention and treatment of liver diseases, scientists examined the hepatoprotective effect of Inula Britannica using fermentation on HepG2 cells.

Elecampane, also known as Horse-heal (Inula helenium) is a perennial composite plant, genus nulla, belonging to Asteraceae, native to Southern Europe, and Asia. 

The plant has been used in traditional and herbal medicine in treating bronchitis or emphysema, night sweats, pulmonary tuberculosis, irritating cough, catarrhal discharges, etc.

According to tested analysis,
* The Epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) found I. Britannica extract was enhanced from 2.06 to 10.28 μg/mg during fermentation (p < 0.001).

* The fermentation also increased the DPPH radical-scavenging ABTS radical-scavenging, and superoxide anion-scavenging abilities to 92.65%, 694.25 μM Trolox/mL, and 86.38%, respectively.

* At 500 μg/mL (p < 0.05). Cupric-ion-reducing capacity with formation of the Cu+-neocuproine complex increased by 5.88%, 6.38%, 3.24%, and 8.55% at 62.5 to 500 μg/mL. Ferric-ion-reducing capacity of the fermented extract increased by 20%, 7.16%, 3.85%, and 5.45% at each concentration (p < 0.05).

* Furthermore, compared to the unfermented extracts yielded cell viability of 91.42%, 90.59%, 88.38%, and 79.17%, the fermented extract yielded 100.28%, 99.66%, 96.15%, and 89.90%, respectively.

* Moreover, the fermented extract decreased liver stress marker of alanine transaminase activity from 117.2 to 61.7 U/mL in the ethanol-damaged HepG2 cell line (p < 0.01).

Based on the results, researchers suggest, " Overall, both antioxidant and hepatoprotective effect increased by fermentation in I. Britannica extract.

Taken altogether, Elecampane may be considered a liver protective remedy, 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) Improved in vitro antioxidant properties and hepatoprotective effects of a fermented Inula britannica extract on ethanol-damaged HepG2 cells by Bae WY1, Kim HY1, Park EH2, Kim KT3, Paik HD. (PubMed)