The effects of dietary administration of the water extract of Solanum nigrum Linne（SN） on the hepatic damage induced by carbon tetrachloride（CCl4）in rats were investigated. Male SD rats were treated with 0.1ml/100g body weight of 20% CCl4 by i.p. and the different degrees of hepatic damage were observed by the elevated levels of serum marker enzymes such as aspartate aminotransferase（AST）, alanine aminotransferase（ALT）, and other changes of serum components such as total cholesterol, triglyceride（TG）, ALP, Total-bilirubin. Treatments of the animals with SNL were 20mg /100g, 50mg /100g, and 100mg /100g body weight in the diets for six consecutive weeks, and the enzyme elevations were significantly suppressed. This suggested that SNE possessed chemopreventive effects on the chronic hepatic damage induced by CCl4 . It can also be observed from the histopathological evaluation of rat livers that hepatic damage is reversed in the manner of extract-dose-dependent. However, the free radical were significantly decreased, indicating SNE can provide the protection effects on the hepatic damage induced by CCl4. Via these studies, we demonstrate that SNL is a chemopreventing and hepatoprotective agent.
