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together with traditional Chinese medicine could significantly accelerate the
metabolism of alcohol, reduce the toxicity of alcohol, and coadministration of
taurine and traditional Chinese medicine had better effects.
Abbreviations
ADH
Alcohol dehydrogenase
ALDH
Acetaldehyde dehydrogenase
3.1
Introduction
Alcohol consumption is customary in most cultures and alcohol abuse is common
worldwide. Globally, alcohol causes 3.2% (or 1.8 million) of all deaths annually and
accounts for 4% of disease burden (WHO
1999
). China is the most populated coun-
try in the world, with 22% of the world's population. Beverage brewing has a long
history dating back to the Shang Dynasty (1600-1110 BC). Alcohol is considered as
an important aspect of Chinese culture and drinking is socially accepted as a
significant part of major events in daily life (Hao and Young
2000
) . Excessive alco-
hol consumption is a major risk factor for morbidity. In addition to the potentially
lethal effects of alcohol poisoning to the brain, the liver, which is the main organ for
alcohol oxidation, can also be acutely affected.
Taurine (2-aminoethanesulfonic acid), a sulfur-containing amino acid, is one of
the most abundant free amino acids in many tissues. Although taurine does not
involve in the synthesis of protein, it exerts widespread physiological and pharma-
cological functions including detoxification, antioxidation, membrane stabilization,
osmoregulation and neuromodulation, as well as brain and retina developments
(Lee et al.
2004
). Liver is the main organ capable of synthesizing taurine. Many
protective functions of taurine on the liver damage have been reported. Taurine has
been found to have preventive effects on the development of hepatic steatosis
induced by a high-fat dietary habit in hamster (Yuan-Yen Chang et al.
2011
) . It also
have the effects of curtailing oxidative stress in iron-potentiated alcoholic liver
fibrosis, producing inflammatory and fibrogenic mediators and activating stellate
cells (Shanmugam Lakshmi Devi et al.
2010
). As taurine was first isolated from
ox bile in 1827 by German scientists Friedrich Tiedemann and Leopold Gmelin
(Tiedemann and Gmelin
1827
), it is also an important constituent of Bezoar Bovis
which is a famous Chinese traditional medicine. Besides taurine, many Chinese
traditional medicines have also been reported to have hepatoprotective effects
(Liu et al.
1994
; Ching-Yi Liu et al.
2010
). The present study aimed to investigate
the effects of taurine and Chinese traditional medicine on alcohol metabolism
after acute alcohol intake, in order to prevent and accelerate recovery from intoxica-
tion induced by alcohol.
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