Hepatoprotective and toxic characteristics of the whole herb of traditional Tibetan folk medicine Swertia

Swertia mussotii Franch. (SM) (Gentianaceae) was a traditional Tibetan folk herb for hepatitis in the Qinghai-Tibet plateau areas. For understanding the hepatoprotection and toxicity characteristics of Swertia mussotii Franch., the whole plant of Swertia mussotii was extracted by water (SME-b) and 75% ethanol (SME-a); then, SME-a was dissolved with water, the supernatant was SME-c, and the sedimentation was SME-d. 17.76% SME-a, 14.48% SME-b, 10.13% SME-c, and 4.35%SME-d were extracted from Swertia mussotii. These four extracts were evaluated with acute toxicity and hepatoprotective effect on CCl4-induced acute liver damage in mice. The toxic material mainly reside in SME-c and SME-a. The hepatoprotective materials were in SME-a, SME-c and SME-d, while SME-b had no hepatoprotective activities. So, SME-a and SME-c had both the hepatoprotection and toxicity characteristics; SME-b had no toxicity or the hepatoprotection characteristics; only SME-d was hepatoprotective function without toxicity, which could be a good candidate for new drug healing the live disorder.