Inhibitory effects of sugar cane extracts on liver injuries in mice

We studied inhibitory effects of Sugar Cane Extracts (SCEs) on 4 types of chemically induced liver injury models using mice (carbon tetrachloride (CCl4), CCl4 with phenobarbital, a-naphthylisothiocyanate (ANIT) and D-galactosamine). Three types of the SCEs were prepared by different extraction methods. The Extract 1 and the Extract 2 were obtained by synthetic adsorbent resin column chromatography from sugar cane juice and distillation liquid of sugar cane juice, respectively. And the Extract 3 was obtained by the hot water extraction from bagasse. The SCEs (500 mg/kg.day) were orally administrated, respectively for 5 consecutive days and any of chemical treatments was performed at 6 hours before the 5th administration. The SCEs effectively reduced both plasma GOT and GPT activities significantly compared with a positive control group in each model. The 4 models were induced by the different mechanisms, and the SCEs were prepared by the different methods, however, all of them were effective on all the models tested. These results suggest that sugar cane contains components which possess the potentiality reducing the several types of liver injuries though mechanisms of these effects, one of which is possibly an antioxidant effect (on the Extracts 1 and 3 which are supposed to contain polyphenols), are not known in detail (on the Extract 2 which is volatile liquid and supposed to contain phenolic compounds).