Effect of Aqueous Berberis integerrima Extract on Fatty Liver and Triglyceridemia

Introdution: Nowadays, hyperlipidemia and fatty liver disease are one of the urbanity disorders. Medicinal plants regarding benefit effects traditionally had special role in health of society. So, this study was done to evaluate the effect of Berberis integerrima extract on hypertriglyceridemia and fatty liver disease improvement. Methods: This interventional clinical study was done on 188 patients with hypertriglyceridemia (108 male, 80 female) with the age range of 20-70 years and 21 patients with fatty liver disorder. The patients had received 200-250 ml Berberis integerrima extract before sleep for 45- 60 days without any changes in diet regime, exercise activity and administration of anti-hyperlipidemic drugs. After 60 days, triglyceride levels through experiment and fatty liver grade via sonography were evaluated. SPSS statistical software (ver.16) and statistical tests of t-test and Wilcoxon were used for the result analysis and (P < 0/05) were considered significant. Results Blood Triglyceride levels were 292±34 and 200±31 mg.dl-1 before and after Berberis integerrima extract administration in males; whereas the levels were 258±31 and 175±30 mg.dl-1 before and after Berberis integerrima extract administration in females, which showed significant decrease in both gender (p=0.05). From 21 patients with fatty liver disease after Berberis integerrima extract administration, 6 cases with fatty liver grade II were shown grade I and 15 cases with fatty liver grade I were shown normal grade ( P=0.01 ). Conclusion: Regarding the obtained results, Berberis integerrima extract caused significant decrease in hypertriglyceridemia and fatty liver disorder.