Potential Protective Effect of Pretreatment with Caraway Essential Oil in vivo Model of Iron Nanoparticle-induced Liver Injury

Recently, there has been a great deal of interest in the use of the medicinal plants with high antioxidant compounds for curing liver injuries induced by hepatoxcitic agents. This study was to assess the protective effect of Carum carvi L. essential oil (E.O) on the hepatoxitic rats induced by overdose of iron oxide nanoparticles (NPs). The rats were distributed to 4 groups. In negative control group (NC), the rats received normal saline and DMSO daily for 3 days. In control group (C), iron oxide nanoparticles (Fe2O3) (200 mg/kg b.w) was injected daily for 3 days. In the treatment groups, iron oxide nanoparticles plus E.O at 100 & 200 mg/kg b.w were injected daily for 3 days. In following, cytochrome P450 (CYP450), glutathione S-transferase (GST), glutathione (GSH), aspartate transaminase (AST), alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and alanine transaminase (ALT) were estimated at 72 h after NP-treatment. The administration of the E.O could return considerably the decrease of the GST and GSH levels as well as the increase of the level of AST induced by iron oxide NPs. These results are in agreement with histopathological results. The data indicated that E.O provided an efficient prevention against iron oxide NPs-induced hepatotoxicity in rats.