Background: Liver injury or dysfunction is considered as a serious health problem. The available synthetic drugs to treat liver disorders are expensive and cause further damage. Hence, hepatoprotective effects of some herbal drugs have been investigated, and one of the methods to choose herbs in order to study their biological effects is to search in ancient medical texts. Avicenna who is known as the prince of physicians had collected and classified Greek, Persian and Islamic medicine in the best possible way in the book of Canon in Arabic.Objectives: Avicenna’s book of The Canon of Medicine was reviewed to find the hepatoprotective herbs.Patients and Methods: Three different versions of the Canon were prepared and utilized. To find scientific names of plants we took advantage of three botany references. All of the herbs were investigated on the basis of scientific data from hepatoprotective effects point of view. The searched term was "hepatoprotective" without narrowing and limiting. The searched databases included Cochrane library, Web of science, SID, Irandoc and Iran Medex.Results: 18 plants were found.85% of the presented species, genus or families of plants were reported to have hepatoprotective properties and in the remaining 15% there were no reports of hepatoprotective effect. Flowers and fruits were the most used part of the plants. Most of the plants had simultaneous protective effects on multiple organs but the protective effect on the liver was mostly accompanied by protective effect on the stomach (83%). The average temperament of these herbs is "hot" in the 2nd phase of the 2nd grade, and "dry" in the 3rd phase of the 2nd grade. Hepatoprotective herbs mostly prescribed as a part of hepatoprotective compound drugs formula or other formula for liver diseases are Crocus sativus, Pistacia lentiscus, and Cinnamomum spp.Conclusions: Maybe there is common mechanism for protecting both liver and stomach. Aquilaria agallocha, Aquilaria malaccensis, and Ruscus aculeatus whose hepatoprotective effects have not yet been reported are considered as good candidates for future investigations. Given that Crocus sativus, and Cinnamomum spp are used as flavors in most countries, they will be introduced for more investigation in order to produce hepatoprotective drugs.

Treatment of diseases with natural remedies is gaining popularity because of fewer side effects. A sys temic and scientific investigation of aqueous extract of Euphorbia tirucalli for its antioxidant and hepato protective potential against carbon-tetrachloride-induced hepatic damage in rats was carried out. Antioxi dant property was assessed by using reducing property, superoxide anion scavenging and hydroxyl radi cal scavenging property. Hepato-protective property was assessed by measuring the extent of reversal of enhanced biochemical markers of hepatitis, like sSerum glutamate pyruvate transaminase, serum gluta mate oxaloacetate transaminase, alkaline phosphatase ALP, biluribin, cholesterol, triglycerides and also by estimating the tissue glutathione (GSH) levels and the extent of reduction in the tissue lipid peroxide tion. The aqueous extract has demonstrated dose-dependant invitro antioxidant property (at 20 mg, 40 mg, 60 mg, 80 mg, 100 mg) in all the models of the study. Similarly, aqueous extract of Euphorbia tirucalli at the doses of 125mg/kg and 250mg/kg produced significant hepatoprotective effect by decreasing the serum enzymes, bilirubin, cholesterol, triglycerides and tissue lipid peroxidation, while it significantly increased the levels of tissue GSH in a dose-dependant manner. From the present study, it may be concluded that the test extract possesses antioxidant and hepatoprotective properties. The hepatoprotective property may be attributed to its antioxidant potential.

Objective: The stem bark of Mammea africana Sabine (Guttiferae), (M. africana) a common plant that has been traditionally used to treat various diseases and ailments was evaluated for hepatoprotective potentials against paracetamol-induced liver injury in rats.Materials and Methods: The hepatoprotective effect of the stem bark extract (30-90 mg/kg) was evaluated by the assay of liver function parameters, namely total and direct bilirubin, serum protein and albumin, total cholesterol, alanine aminotransaminase (ALT), aspartate aminotransaminase (AST), and alkaline phosphatase activities (ALP), antioxidant enzymes: superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), glutathione peroxidase (GPx), reduced glutathione (GSH) and histopathological study of the liver.Results: Administration of the stem bark extract caused a significant (p<0.05 – 0.001) dose-dependent reduction of high levels of liver enzymes (ALT, AST and ALP), total cholesterol, direct and total bilirubin as well as elevation of serum levels of total protein, albumin and antioxidant enzymes (SOD, CAT, GPx and GSH). Histology of the liver sections of extract and silymarin-treated animals showed reductions in the pathological features compared to the paracetamol-treated animals. The chemical pathological changes were consistent with histopathological observations suggesting marked hepatoprotective effect of the stem bark extract of M. africana.Conclusion: The results show that the stem bark extract of M. africana has hepatoprotective potential which may be due to its antioxidant activity.