European Journal of Medicinal Plants

Aims: To prepare the Poria cocos total triterpenoids (PCTT) from the surface layer of Poria cocos and evaluate its pharmacological effect on alcohol induced-liver injury.

Study Design: PCTT was prepared from the surface layer of Poria cocos and characterized. Its effects on alcohol induced-liver injury models were investigated in vitro and in vivo.

Place and Duration of Study: School of Pharmacy, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, between January 2014 and March 2014.

Methodology: PCTT was prepared via D101 macroporous resin chromatography and characterized by high performance liquid chromatography. The hepatoprotective and antioxidant effects of PCTT against alcohol induced-liver injury were investigated in L-02 cell line and mice.

Results: PCTT containing 63.95% triterpenoids showed potent radical-scavenging activities in vitro. PCTT (10 μg/mL and 20 μg/mL) treatments increased the viability of cells significantly in alcohol-treated L-02 cells. In vivo, pretreated with PCTT suppressed the acute ethanol gavage induced increase of the serum aminotransferase (AST), aminotransferase (ALT) levels and liver triacylglycerol (TG) level in mice. Simultaneously, PCTT also enhanced the glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) activity and restored glutathione (GSH) level in liver.

Conclusion: This study suggests that PCTT, containing 63.95% triterpenoids, could significantly improve the impairments of liver induced by alcohol and suitable for alcohol induced-liver injury patients as medicine or functional food, which would be a new candidate for the treatment of alcohol liver disease (ALD).