CHEMO PREVENTIVE EFFECT OF PIPERINE IN N-NITROSODIETHYLAMINEINDUCED AND PHENOBARBITAL PROMOTED EXPERIMENTAL RAT HEPATOCELLULAR CARCINOMA

Every year, almost 5, 00,000 new patients are diagnosed with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), primary malignancy of the liver that is associated with poor prognosis. In recent years, development of efficient anti-cancer agents from natural sources has become a major focus of researchers. The present study was designed to investigate the preventive and therapeutic effects of piperine against DEN induced HCC in male wistar rats. Twenty four rats were divided into four groups (n=6). Group I serves as Control, Group II were induced with HCC by DEN (200mg/kg b.wt) followed by phenobarbital (0.05 % w/V), Group III received same as Group II and followed by piperine (50mg/kg b.wt) and Group IV received piperine alone at a dose of 50mg/kg b.wt, up to 16 successive weeks. Results indicated that there is significant increase in relative liver weight (P