Abstract
The aim of the present work was to investigate the synergistic hepatoprotective effect of fermented goat milk (FGM) combined with aqueous extracts of baobab (Adansonia digitata L.) (BE) and desert truffle (Terfezia claveryi) (DTE). Chemical analysis indicated that BE is rich in ascorbic acid (67.3 mg/100 g dry weight). Both extracts reduced the stable free radical DPPH (96.4 and for BE versus 70.2 % for BE and DTE, respectively). For examining the hepatoprotective effect of these treatments in vivo, thirty-six rats were randomly divided into six groups (n=6 per group). Group 1 served as the normal control (NC). Hepatotoxicity was induced in rats of the other five groups using CCl4. Group 2 served as the positive control (PC), while the remaining 4 groups received orally FGM, DTE, BE and their mixture (1:1:1) for 28 days. Hepatotoxicity was characterized by high liver weight as well as an elevation in serum levels of liver enzymes in the PC group. All treatments restored weight of liver to that of the NC group (P>0.05). Highest positive effect was recorded for DTE which lowered liver weight by 33.9% compared with PC group (P<0.05). Concentrations of liver enzymes were significantly reduced in all treatment groups compared to PC group. Moreover, the protective effect was further confirmed by histopathological as a considerable reduction in necrosis and fatty changes were noticed. In sum, FGM, Desert Truffle and Baobab could be potentially used as functional food to protect against liver lesion.