GPT and hepatitis A virus infection: More than 5000 case studies of hepatoprotective effects of fruit extracts from Schisandra have been reported in Chinese literature with patients with hepatitis; in a clinically controlled trial involving 189 patients with chronic viral hepatitis B and elevated ALT levels, an ethanol extract of the fruits, containing 20 mg of lignans (equivalent to 1.5 g of the fruits), resulted in 68% (72/107) and 44% (36/72) improvement in serum ALT levels within 4 weeks and 8 weeks, in patients receiving the extract and control group, respectively [16].