Protective Effects of Taraxacum officinale (L.) Weber on CCl₄-Induced Liver Toxicity in Male Rats

Background: Hepatotoxicity and drug-induced liver injury (DILI) are significant worldwide health issues and carbon tetrachloride (CCl₄)-induced liver toxicity has been extensively used as an experimental model for DILI. Taraxacum officinale (dandelion) is one of the classic herbal compounds with a traditional use for hepatoprotective effect, but systemic mechanistic investigations using persistent liver injury models are lacking. Objective: This study investigated the protective effects that T. officinale root extract could have against CCl_₄-induced hepatotoxicity in male Wistar rats via biochemical, antioxidant, and histopathological evaluations. Methods: A total of 40 male Wistar rats (180-220 g) were used and randomly divided into four groups (n = 10): Group I - Control; Group II - CCl_₄-intoxicated Group III - CCl_₄ + Silymarin (100 mg/kg); Group IV - CCl_₄ + T. officinale extract Agr 300 mg/kg The experiment lasted 8 weeks. Intraperitoneal injection of CCl_₄ (1 mL/kg, 1:1 in corn oil) was used to induce hepatotoxicity twice weekly. Liver function markers [alanine aminotransaminase (ALT), aspartate ametansfer/free maleic acid (MDA)], and total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC). Hepatic histopathology was evaluated using hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining. Results: CCl_₄ administration significantly increased the levels of serum ALT, AST, ALP and TB (p < 0.001), while decreasing TP and T-AOC accompanied by an increase in MDA levels. T. officinale treatment significantly reduced these changes, bringing the liver enzyme concentrations back to near normal levels. Quantitative analysis of histopathological examination indicated that the samples treated with BBR showed significant improvement in hepatic architecture, reduced risk of necrosis, inflammatory infiltration and steatosis compared to CCl_₄ group. The protective effects were similar to those of the reference hepatoprotant silymarin. Conclusions: Aqueous root extract of T. officinale possesses notable hepatoprotective activity in carbon tetrachloride (CCl_₄)-induced liver toxicity in rats, and such effects are likely due to its antioxidant potential and maintaining hepatic integrity. These results validate the traditional treatment of dandelion for liver diseases and merit clinical studies.