Recent Advances in the Herbal Treatment of Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

Abstract

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is one of the leading causes of chronic liver injury across the world. It is also strongly related to other pathological conditions, including obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and symptoms of metabolic syndrome. Pathogenesis of NAFLD remains not fully characterized but is generally attributed to the occurrence of insulin resistance, lipid metabolism dysfunction,0 oxidative stress, inflammation, and necro-apoptosis. Every potential therapeutic strategy should target one or some of these pathological events in the liver. Over the past decades, application of herbal treatment for NAFLD has received increasing attention due to its wide availability, low side effects, and proven therapeutic mechanisms and benefits. In recent years, some monomers and certain functional mixtures of herbs have been extensively examined for their potential uses in NAFLD treatment. In the present review, we selected several herbal derivatives under intense basic and/or clinical investigations by carrying out a PubMed search of English language articles relevant to herbal derivatives and NAFLD, such as polysaccharide portion of wolfberry, garlic-derived monomers, red grape–derived resveratrol, and milk thistle–derived substances. They have been shown to target the pathological events during NAFLD initiation and progression both in pre-clinical studies and clinical trials. Although more detailed mechanistic researches and long-term clinical evaluations are needed for their future applications, they offer unanticipated and great health benefits without obvious adverse effects in NAFLD therapy.

Potential involvement of PPAR α activation in diminishing the hepatoprotective effect of fenofibrate in NAFLD

“…Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is one of the leading causes of chronic liver injury across the world and is also strongly related to other pathological conditions such as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, metabolic syndrome [57] and expected to be the most frequent indication for liver transplantation by 2030 [7]. It consists of a spectrum of hepatic pathology starting from simple steatosis which means increase fat content of a normal liver from less than 5% of its weight to 50-80% in steatohepatitis (NASH), which may progress to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma [39].…”

Glycyrrhizin ameliorates metabolic syndrome-induced liver damage in experimental rat model

“…For these, phytochemicals from different herbal sources are being increasingly used [8,9]. Glycyrrhizin, a triterpene saponin, is the major water soluble component of licorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra) root extract.…”

Mitigating Effect of Resveratrol on the Structural Changes of Mice Liver and Kidney Induced by Cadmium; A Stereological Study

“…Up to now, different beneficial effects of RES have been reported, including anticancer and neuroprotective properties and cardiovascular protection. This substance functions as an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory mediator and changes the pro-inflammatory cytokines in rats' hepatocytes (13)(14)(15)(16). RES is known to be associated with grapes, mulberries, groundnuts, and peanuts.…”