Hepatoprotective effects of quercetin against natural and chemical toxicities: A review

Liver metabolizes and detoxifies xenobiotics and toxicity in this organ can lead to dysfunctionality. Flavonoids such as quercetin (QRC) have been shown to possess protective effects against different liver disorders. This flavonol exerts its hepatoprotective effects via different mechanisms including increase of nuclear factor (erythroid-derived 2)-like 2 protein expression, sirtuin 1, thioredoxin and thioredoxin reductase and decrease in nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells (NF-κB) and myeloid differentiation primary response gene 88 (MYD88). The aim of the current review was to examine the possible protective effects of QRC against different natural and chemical toxic agents-induced hepatotoxicity, so that it could be considered as a hepatoprotective agent in clinical trials. Based on a variety of keywords, Medline, Scopus, Web of Science and Google scholar were searched for all related published literature. Because of insufficient clinical trials on this topic, this review contains only in vivo and in vitro investigations. In this regard, more clinical trials are required to be performed to confirm QRC beneficial properties in human hepatotoxicity. Collectively, QRC could be a promising natural compound in reversing the toxic effects of different toxic agents in the liver.