Objective: 

The leaves of Cornus mas L. (Cornaceae) have been widely used in the Anatolian folk medicine against diabetes & diarrhea. As a part of our ongoing studies on this plant, this study was designed to investigate the glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) activities in the livers of CCl4–treated Sprague-Dawley rats (270–300 g)

Methods: 

Methanolic extract (70%) of plant samples was prepared and administered p.o in 50, 100, 200 mg/kg bw doses to animals for 5 days. On the second and third day of extract administration, CCl4 were administered 1ml/kg bw s.c to all groups. Silymarin was used as reference and distilled water as negative control. The ALT/AST activities of all groups were measured as an indicator of hepatotoxicity.

Results: 

According to the result of ALT/AST activities, CCl4 succesfully induced hepatotoxicity. The GSH-Px activities were found as 1125±124, 1130±108, 1273±179 U/L in 50, 100, 200 mg/kg bw dose groups, respectively. Whereas GSH-Px activity of the negative control CCl4 – treated group was 1089 ± 202 U/L. Although the results showed an increase with respect to negative control group, these differences were not significant.

Conclusions: 

It can be concluded that only GSH-Px activity measurement is not enough to evaluate entire antioxidative capacity of a sample. Our studies on other antioxidant enzymes are in progress.