Evaluation of the Cytotoxic Effects of Herbal Homeopathic Extracts in Primary Human Hepatocytes In Vitro

摘要

In Europe, Petasites hybridus L. (butterbur) and Chelidonium majus L. (greater celandine) are being used for centuries in traditional and folk medicine. Even today, preparations from these plants represent valuable products in homeo-pathic and anthroposophic medicine, e.g. for the treatment of liver dysfunction (Chelidonium) and asthma or migraine (Petasites). Although both plants have been associated with a potential to cause hepatotoxic effects in vitro and in vivo, experimental data are insufficient to draw final conclusions and to determine toxicological threshold levels, especially for Petasites. In order to elucidate the hepatotoxic potential of mother tinctures from C. majus (HAB, Vs. 34b) and P. hybridus (HAB Vs. 33c), their toxicity was studied in primary human hepato-cytes under GLP conditions. Due to the fact that primary human hepatocytes include almost the complete set of metabolic enzymes of the human organism preserving also the inducibility of the enzymes, they are recommended by vari-ous test guidelines [1]. In this sense they are suitable to evaluate hepatotoxic and cytotoxic effects in vitro and to investigate fundamental aspects of drug metabolism-linked toxicity.