Table 1.

Effects of ethanolic extract of Andrographis paniculata (APE) and andrographolide (AND) on the body weight, liver weight, and plasma aminotransferases of rats.

	Control	APE	AND
Body weight (g)
Initial	271 ± 16	272 ± 7	272 ± 8
Final	337 ± 10a	307 ± 12b	332 ± 13a
Liver weight (g)	14.4 ± 1.2	13.3 ± 0.7	12.8 ± 1.5
Relative liver weight (%)	4.3 ± 0.4	4.3 ± 0.4	3.8 ± 0.3
Plasma aminotransferases (U/L)
AST	24.8 ± 5.4	23.5 ± 5.7	27.7 ± 4.4
ALT	14.7 ± 2.4	12.9 ± 2.2	15.8 ± 8.2

Rats were orally dosed daily with 2 g/kg of APE or 50 mg/kg of AND for 5 days. Relative liver weight = (liver weight/ body weight) × 100. AST: aspartate aminotransferase; ALT: alanine aminotransferase. The values represent the mean ± SD, n = 5. The significance of the difference among group means was determined by one-way ANOVA followed by Tukey's test. ^abValues of treatments not sharing the same letter differ significantly, P < 0.05.