EVALUATION OF HEPATOPROTECTIVE ACTIVITY OF ALOE VERA IN ACUTE VIRAL HEPATITIS

Background & objectives: Liver diseases are one of the major causes of disease burden all over world including our country so it is the need of hour to search for alternative drugs for the treatment of liver diseases. Aloe Vera is one of the most popular plants in the world, and is has been used frequently in history for its medicinal properties.

Material &Methods: A total of 110 male and female patients of age group between 15- 65 years, diagnosed clinically and biochemically as the case of acute viral hepatitis and ready to give consent were recruited in the study from SVBP Hospital, LLRM Medical College Meerut (U.P), 250004. Subjects who fulfilled selection criteria were randomized into two groups. Fifty patients belonging to control group received conventional treatment for acute viral hepatitis while 60 patients enrolled in treated group were given conventional treatment for acute viral hepatitis supplemented with Aloe vera juice (Patanjali Ayurved ltd, Haridwar) in dose of 20 ml BD orally. Every patient was followed up for 6 weeks. Serum bilirubin, serum Alanine transaminase (ALT), serum Aspartate transaminase (AST) and serum Alkaline phosphatase (ALP) levels were measured initially and at the end of 2, 4 and 6 weeks.

Results, Interpretation & Conclusions: Intragroup comparison using repeated measure ANOVA demonstrated a statistically significant (p<0.001) decrease in above mentioned parameters for both treated and control groups at all intervals of time. Intergroup comparison done by student-t-test, revealed statistically significant (p<0.001) difference in all the mentioned parameters between treated and control groups at all intervals of times