antioxidant activity of ethanolic extract of crocus sativus l. (saffron) stigma against rifampin induced hepatotoxicity

background: tuberculosis continues to be a common health problem worldwide. rifampin, an antibiotic used routinely for tuberculosis chemotherapy is documented to be a potent hepatotoxicant. the aim of the present study was to assess the antioxidant activity of ethanolic extract of crocus sativus l . stigma (eecsl.s) against rifampin induced hepatotoxicity in the rats. materials and methods: male wistar rats were randomly assigned into 5 groups of 8 animals each. group i served as normal control and received normal saline (10 ml/kg). group ii served as toxicant control and received rifampin (500 mg/kg). the reference drug silymarin (50 mg/kg), eecsl.s at 40 mg/kg and eecsl.s at 80 mg/kg were administered to the groups iii-v, respectively. these three groups received rifampin (500mg/kg) too. all treatments were administered by p.o. route dissolving in 10 ml/kg normal saline daily for 1 month. at the end of experiment, product of lipid peroxidation (mda), activities of superoxide dismutase (sod), catalase (cat), glutathione peroxidase (gpx) and glutathione reductase (gr) were assayed in liver homogenates to evaluate antioxidant activity. significant differences among the groupswere determined by oneway analysis of variance followed by bonferroni post-test. statistical significance was considered at p ‹ 0.05. results: in rifampin-treated rats, eecsl.s (40 and 80 mg/kg) and silymarin significantly decreased the lipid peroxidation and elevated the levels of antioxidant enzymes, in a dose dependent manner. conclusion: the present findings suggest that the hepatoprotective effect of crocus sativus l . stigma in rifampin induced oxidative damage may be related to its antioxidant and free radical scavenging activity.