Comparison of the Therapeutic Efficacy of Rhizoma Alismatis, Fructus Crataegi,
Fructus Lycii, Radix Curcumae, Radix Salviae Miltiorrhizae, Herba Artemisiae Scopariae
on the Experimental Cellular Model of Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

Han, Chang-woo; Joo, Myung-soo; Lee, Jang-hoon

The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine > Volume 33(4); 2012 > Article

Original Article

The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine 2012;33(4): 533-542.

비알코올성 지방간 세포 모델에 대한 택사, 산사, 구기자, 울금, 단삼, 인진의 효능 비교

한창우¹, 주명수², 이장훈³

¹부산대학교 한의학전문대학원 내과학교실
²부산대학교 한의학전문대학원 응용의학부
³경희대학교 한의과대학 간계내과학교실

Comparison of the Therapeutic Efficacy of Rhizoma Alismatis, Fructus Crataegi, Fructus Lycii, Radix Curcumae, Radix Salviae Miltiorrhizae, Herba Artemisiae Scopariae on the Experimental Cellular Model of Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

Chang-woo Han¹, Myung-soo Joo², Jang-hoon Lee³

¹Dept. of Internal Medicine, School of Korean Medicine, Pu-San National University
²Division of Applied Medicine, School of Korean Medicine, Pu-San National University
³Dept. of Internal Medicine, College of Korean Medicine, Kyung-Hee University

Correspondence

Jang-hoon Lee ,Tel: 02-958-9118, Fax: 02-958-9120, Email: komclive@khmc.or.kr

Published online: December 30, 2012.

ABSTRACT

Objectives:
We try to compared the efficacy of six herbal medicines, Rhizoma Alismatis (RA), Fructus Crataegi (FC), Fructus Lycii (FL), Radix Curcumae (RC), Radix Salviae Miltiorrhizae (RSM), and Herba Artemisiae Scopariae (HAS), constituting KHchunggan-tang which was previously proven to be hepatoprotective on non-alcoholic fatty liver disease with combined properties of cellular steatosis, ROS production, and cytoprotection.

Methods :
HepG2 cells were pretreated with aqueous extracts of the six herb medicines at concentrations of 1, 10, 50 and 100 μg/ml each, and treated with 0.5 mM palmitate consecutively. After 21 hrs, cell viability was assessed using MTT assay, and the percentage of cells with sub-G1 DNA content was measured using fluorescence-activated cell sorting after propidium iodide staining.

Results:
The first three extracts, RA, FC, and FL restored cell viability reduced by palmitate in MTT assay, and RA, FC, FL and RC inhibited palmitate-induced apoptosis in sub-G1 analysis. FL showed relatively weak potential only at tested maximal dose, and RA showed the greatest higher efficacy on this experimental cellular model of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.

Conclusions:
According to this comparative experiment, Rhizoma Alismatis seems to have the most powerful potential among the six herbs constituting KHchunggan-tang, and consecutive further study seems to be required for more standardized and effective clinical application of KHchunggan-tang for treatment of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

Key words: nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, KHchunggan-tang, Rhizoma Alismatis