Sugar reduction in complex food systems: linking metabolic mechanisms, matrix engineering, and safety evaluation.

Kha is a herbal drug cultivated as a green bush, and it is mostly grown in Southern Arabia and East Africa. Ethiopia is the prominent khat-producing country in the world, and khat chewing is a widespread practice among adults in the country. Khat consists of a large number of active ingredients such as cathinone, cathine, and norephedrine among which cathinone is the principal and predominant psychoactive ingredient found in khat’s fresh leaves and twigs, as confirmed by phytochemical analysis. The World Health Organization (WHO) expert committee on drug dependence categorized khat as a drug of abuse in 2006, and those who abuse it may experience a variety of health issues. The liver is a major organ responsible for metabolizing, detoxifying, and eliminating substances from the body. The status of the liver is assessed and evaluated by liver function tests, such as liver enzymes, total protein, direct and total bilirubin.