الفهرس 
IntroductionOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Liver has a pivotal role in regulating many important functions; they included metabolism, secretion, storage; and regulation of various physiological processes. Furthermore, it is involved in detoxification of a variety of drugs and xenobiotics. Therefore, liver becomes susceptible to the toxicity from these agents.
Nowadays, there has been an increasing global interest in the use of natural antioxidants as they can be more potent and less toxic than synthetic ones. Also, the usage of secondary metabolites drugs for the treatment of liver diseases has increased all over the world.
The focus of the present study was planned to prepare a nano-based chitosan composite (NSC) loaded with this natural extract. The possible use of such NSC as a medicinal drug was also investigated. For achieving this aim, chitosan as a biologically nonthreatening biopolymer was used as a carrier for a crude extract of soft coral dendronephthya (SCD). Furthermore, for excellent encapsulation and protection, polyvinyl alcohol as a synthetic polymer was used as a covering material to coat the nanocomposite of NSC@SCD and ensure the excellent entrapment of SCD.
The results of the present study revealed that; CCl4 administration induces oxidative stress, SCD and NSC@SCD administration can counteract the oxidative stress induced by CCl4. This was obvious from the results of antioxidant parameters including enzymatic (catalase) and non enzymatic (GSH) as well as total antioxidant capacity which were found to be significant elevated after treatment of CCl4 intoxicated animals with these extract. Thus, It can be concluded that the crude extract of Dendronephthya (SCD) loaded chitosan nanoparticles (NSC) is considered a promising formula to be used in medicinal domains as it increase the performance of the liver and safeguard against free radicals’ invasion in the injection of CCl4 for experimental rats, which were itemized in comparison with the silymarin (glistening hepatoprotective drugs).