• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.320-324
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• 1995

Pretreatment of Glycyrrhizae Radix(GR) to male Sprague-Dawley rats was demonstrated to increase excretion of acetaminophen-glucuronide ocnjugate when bile nad urine were assayed after administration of acetaminophen. In order to study the effect of GR on the glucuronidation in rats, we examined enzymatic activities of hepatic UDP-glucuronosyl-transferases (UDP-GT1 and UDP-GT2) and intracellular concentrations of hepatic UDP-glucuronic acid (UDP-GA), upon the administration of GR (1 g/kg body weight, p.o.) or glycyrrhizin (23 mg/kg body weight, p.o.) a major component of GR, for 6 days. GR and glycyrrhizin caused increases in specific activities of UDP-GT2 111% and 96% respectively. Specific activity of UDP-GT1 was increased 25% by GR treatment whereas it was not significantly increased by glycyrrhizin. Concentrations of UDP-GA were increased 257% by GR and 484% by glycyrrhizin. These data indicate that GR activated glucuronidation and thus suggest the possibility that GR may influence detoxification of xenobiotics in rat liver.