A study was undertaken to investigate the dietary effect of taurine in chronic alcoholic patients. The 30 chronic alcoholic patients with 2 to 5 times greater than normal activities of aspartate transaminase (AST) or alanine transaminase (ALT) were selected and equally divided into taurine and control groups. In the taurine group, each patient took 6 g taurine per day, divided into 3 doses, for three months, and then stopped treatment for 1 month. In the control group, patients took a placebo without taurine for 4 months. It was found that the AST and ALT activities and levels of cholesterol, triglyceride (TG), bilirubin, and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) of serum plasma in the taurine group were all decreased, but increased alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) and aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) activities and serum vitamins concentrations. Except for the level of TG, all were significantly different after taking taurine for 2 or 3 months. It indicated that taurine plays an important role in the properties of antioxidation and has some improvement on the liver tests of chronic alcoholic patients.

15 phenolic amides (PAs) have been synthesized and examinedin vitrousing four tests: (1) prevention of Cu²⁺-induced human low-density lipoprotein oxidation, (2) scavenging of stable radicals, (3) anti-inflammatory activity, and (4) scavenging of superoxide radicals.

This study was designed to test the lipid-lowering and antioxidative activities of Pracparatum mungo extract (PME), in comparison to its components berberine and glycyrrhizin in cholesterol-fed hamsters. The PME and berberine significantly lowered the atherogenic index compared to glycyrrhizin and the control (P < 0.05). The hepatic HMG-CoA reductase activity was significantly lower in the PME and berberine groups than in the glycyrrhizin group (P < 0.05), while the hepatic ACAT activity was significantly decreased by all treatments with respect to the high cholesterol fed group (P < 0.05). The overall potential of the antioxidant system was significantly enhanced by the PME, berberine and glycyrrhizin supplements as the plasma and hepatic TBARS levels were lowered while the hepatic superoxide dismutase activity and glutathione levels, HMG-CoA reductase, LDL receptor, PPAR, SREBP-2 and CYP7A1 mRNA expressions were increased by the treatments of PME and berberine in comparison with the high cholesterol fed hamsters (P < 0.05). Collectively, these results suggest that the supplementation of PME, berberine and glycyrrhizin increased antioxidant activity in hamsters. Furthermore, we observed that PME and berberine groups promoted the excretion of neutral and acidic sterols (P < 0.05), that could contribute to explain the lower plasma and hepatic cholesterol levels found in the treated animals.