Choleretic Properties of Baccharis spicata Aerial Parts Extracts in Male Wistar Rats

Abstract

Many Baccharis species, Asteraceae, called “carquejas” are traditional folk herbs used for the treatment of hepatic disorders in South American countries. Baccharis articulata (Lam.) Pers. and B. crispa Spreng. are included in the Argentine Pharmacopeia. However, the analysis of commercial samples showed that B. spicata (Lam.) Baill. often replaces official Baccharis spp. although there are no scientific studies that support its use. In this work, Wistar rats were administered with different doses of ethanol extract form aerial parts and its derived aqueous and ethylacetate extracted fractions. We determined that the bile flow significantly increased when the ethanol extract-treated groups were compared with the control. Moreover, the aqueous and ethylacetate fractions induced an increase not only in bile flow compared with the control group, but also in the biliary excretion of bile salts. In addition, the ethanol extract and ethylacetate fraction significantly induced expression of cholesterol 7α-hydroxylase (CYP7A, the enzyme that initiates the classic bile acid biosynthetic pathway), suggesting that both treatments can induce bile secretion through a bile salt-dependent mechanism. In order to provide a chemical analysis useful for the quality control of B. spicata extract and fractions, HPLC-UV/DAD and HPLC-MS were carried out. Our results demonstrate that the aqueous fraction was enriched in monocaffeoylquinic acids and the ethylacetate fraction in dicaffeoylquinic acids. The obtained results suggest that B. spicata-derived extracts cause a significant increase in bile flow as well as in bile salts concentration, demonstrating a choleretic activity produced by caffeoylquinic acids.