sapogenins and Liver-Diseases

Topics: Animals; Chemical and Drug Induced Liver Injury; Liver Diseases; Photosensitivity Disorders; Plants, Edible; Sapogenins; Saponins; Sheep; Sheep Diseases; Steroids

As part of an experimental study, crystal-associated cholangiopathy was induced in 9 sheep by grazing pure pastures of Brachiaria decumbens in Brazil. One of these sheep showed characteristic lesions of photosensitization. The analysis of the B decumbens samples by acidic hydrolysis followed by TLC and infrared spectrum revealed diosgenin as the principal sapogenin present in the plant. In the rumen contents samples from the B decumbens-grazing group were identified by TLC, 1H and 13C NMR and EIMS as epismilagenin, episarsasapogenin, and a mixture of smilagenin and sarsasapogenin. In the bile samples from the B decumbens-grazing group, TLC analysis demonstrated 2 compounds similar to epismilagenin and episarsasapogenin. However, by this same method, those compounds were not observed in the rumen contents and bile from 2 sheep which served as control animals. The P chartarum spore counts remained very low during the experimental period.

Topics: Animals; Ascomycota; Bile; Brazil; Cholangitis; Chromatography, Thin Layer; Colony Count, Microbial; Diosgenin; Histocytochemistry; Liver; Liver Diseases; Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy; Mass Spectrometry; Photosensitivity Disorders; Poaceae; Rumen; Sapogenins; Sheep; Sheep Diseases; Spectrophotometry, Infrared; Spirostans; Spores, Fungal

A simple and quick quantitative analysis of saikosaponins a, c and d, the major bioactive principles contained in Bupleurum species, by TLC scanner is described. Results with Bupleurum kaoi, the species native to Taiwan, showed that the roots, rhizomes and aerial parts (leaves and stem) have greater quantities of saikosaponins than cultivated B. falcatum var. komarowi and imported B. chinense. The liver protective effects of water extracts of "Xiao-Chai-Hu-Tang" (XCHT), a mixture of seven crude drugs, prepared using roots of the three different Bupleurum species and aerial parts of B. kaoi and B. falcatum var. komarowi, were evaluated using CCl4-induced toxicity in rats. The acute increase of serum transaminase (SGOT and SGPT) levels caused by CCl4 administration (3.0 ml/kg, s.c.) was dramatically reduced when treated with XCHT prepared with the roots of B. kaoi. The histological metamorphoses such as fatty changes, ballooning degeneration, cell necrosis and lymphocyte and Kupffer cell increases around the central vein, were clearly decreased by XCHT prepared with B. kaoi. Furthermore, water extracts of aerial parts of both B. kaoi and cultivated B. falcatum var. komarowi decreased SGOT and SGPT levels and moderately reduced the pathological changes.

Topics: Animals; Calibration; Carbon Tetrachloride; Chemical and Drug Induced Liver Injury; Chromatography, Thin Layer; Drugs, Chinese Herbal; Liver; Liver Diseases; Male; Oleanolic Acid; Plant Extracts; Rats; Rats, Inbred Strains; Sapogenins; Saponins

Topics: Animals; Bile; Biliary Tract Diseases; Crystallization; Disease Outbreaks; Liver Diseases; Mass Spectrometry; Photosensitivity Disorders; Plant Poisoning; Poaceae; Sapogenins; Sheep; Sheep Diseases