Study of the protective effects of Livergol drug on the liver histology of Goldfish (Carassius auratus)

Livergol drug is made from the herbal extracts of Milk thistle. Milk thistle contains Flavonolignan and has hepato-protective effects. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of different levels of livergol containing different levels of fat on prevention of liver lesions including water swelling, cloudy swellings, degeneration, fattiness, bleeding and necrosis in Goldfish. For this experiment, 540 Goldfish were used with a mean weight of 3.5±1 gr, which were fed for 90 days with 9 different diets in three treatments 0, 0.2 and 0.5% of Livergol drug and three levels of 9, 12 and 15% fat. At the end of the experiment, samples were collected from the liver tissue and from each treatment four samples were collected for histopathological analysis. The results of the experiment showed that among all the treatments, the most hepatic injuries including water swelling, cloudy swellings, degeneration, fattiness and necrosis were observed in treatment 6 containing 15% fat and without Livergol. In treatment 2 containing 9% fat + 0.5% Livergol, no liver toxicity was observed. The final result of the study showed that the different levels of fat used in this study, the highest hepatic lesions were observed in fish that had 12 and 15% fat levels. Also, in all dietary fat treatments (9, 12% and 15%), the use of Livergol in diet probably due to the presence of Silymarin, reduced liver lesions in Goldfish.