Ameliorative Effects of Black Rice and Purple Sweet Potato Extracts on Methionine–Choline Deficient Diet-induced Non-alcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH) in Mice

Background and Objectives: Nutraceuticals are products being used as food and medicines for the treatment of several chronic diseases. The herbal nutraceuticals are gaining importance because of a wide variety of biological actions due to the presence of phytochemicals, such as alkaloids, glycosides, terpenoids, oils, tannins, and several others, like anthocyanins. These anthocyanins are water-soluble pigments found in plants as secondary metabolites and can be of great therapeutic interest for the management of insulin resistance and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Materials and Methods: Mouse intraperitoneal macrophages primed with lipopolysaccharide (LPS, 1 ng/mL) were subjected to treatment with Oryza sativa L. (black rice) and Ipomoea batatas L. (purple sweet potato) extracts. The evaluation focused on assessing the impact of these extracts on the production of inflammatory cytokines (interleukin-6 [IL-6] and tumor necrosis factor alpha [TNF-α]). Additionally, C57Bl/6 mice were kept on a diet deficient in methionine and choline (MCD) for 8 weeks and were administered O. sativa L. (black rice) and I batatas L. (purple sweet potato) to investigate their effects on NASH. Results: Extracts obtained from O. sativa L. (black rice) and I. batatas L. (purple sweet potato) demonstrated a significant reduction in inflammatory cytokines, as indicated by a marked decline in TNF-α and IL-1β levels in LPS-primed macrophages. Mice on the MCD diet showed NASH phenotype, and treatment with the extracts of black rice and purple sweet potato significantly (p < .05) lowered plasma liver enzyme levels and inflammation, as measured by mRNA analysis, and attenuated fibrosis, as measured by histopathology. Conclusion: Collectively, the findings of the study validated the hypothesis of O. sativa L. (black rice) and I. batatas L. (purple sweet potato) extract could improve inflammation-associated NASH.