Beneficial Hepatoprotective Effect of Triterpene Lupeol: Present Status and Future Perspectives

Abstract

The liver is a crucial organ that performs different tasks, like storing, metabolizing, and detoxi-fying endogenous and foreign chemicals (Dezső et al., 2024). Liver or hepatic diseases pose a major threat to human beings; for example, liver cirrhosis shares a burden of 2.4% of total global deaths (Feng et al., 2024). Although marked advancements have been made in modern medicine, there is a need to develop safe medicines that are less harmful to treating liver diseases based on phytochemicals (Rodríguez-Negrete et al., 2024). Hepatic diseases, different cancers of the bile duct, liver cells, or hepatocellular carcinoma can be caused by viruses like hepatitis A, B, or C. Consumption of alcohol or drug abuse may also lead to fibrosis and cirrhosis of the liver (Gupta et al., 2024). To treat terminal or high-grade liver disease, liver transplantation is usually adopted (Brahmania et al., 2024). Administered drugs, based on their dose and duration, can also cause hepatotoxicity (Singh et al., 2024; Zhu et al., 2024). Production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) also causes metabolic imbalance, leading to liver damage (Singh et al., 2022; Khan et al., 2023a; Galicia-Moreno et al., 2024). When the liver's regenerative potential decreases, it may lead to cirrhosis or persistent damage (Ashmore-Harris et al., 2024). Liver diseases involve changes in the flourishing and growth of healthy microbes, leading to the compromised gut barrier, which causes the outflow of toxic metabolites in the portal vein system, leaching up to the liver and subsequently upsetting bile acid metabolism and accumulation of fat.