Objective To investigate the lipid hepatoprotective effect of silibinin on high fat diet-induced nonalcoholic fatty liver (NAFL) rat model and provide a theoretical basis for the treatment of silibinin on NAFL.Methods The NAFL rat model was established by administration of high fat emulsion and high fat diet.Rats in control group was treated with saline and normal diet.The model rats were randomly divided into model group,simvastatin (positive drug,1.8 mg/kg) group,Silibinin groups with low,middle and high doses (18.9,37.8 and 75.6 mg/kg).From the fifth week,NAFLrats were treated with different drugsonce a day for eight weeks.All rats were anaesthetized after final administration,Livertissues were weighed for the calculation of hepatic coefficient The hepatic morphology was observed through HE staining.Serum was obtained from abdominal aortic blood for detection of triglyceride separation (TG),total cholesterol (TC),high density lipoprotein (HDL),low-density lipoprotein (LDL),aspartate aminotransferase (AST),and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels.Results After eight-week treatment,compared with model group,middle and high doses of silibinin could significantly improve the hepatic steatosis.The levels of hepatic coefficient,serum TC,TG,AST and ALT in rats treated with individual dose of Silibinin were significantly decreased (P ＜ 0.05,0.01).Particularly,high dose of silibinin significantly reduced LDL level whereas elevated HDL level in serum (P ＜ 0.01).Conclusion Silibinin has a therapeutic effect on nonalcoholic fatty liver rats,and possible mechanism is related to lipid-lowering and hepatic protection.