1. Rifampicin (RMP) induced hepatic injury was investigated in growing rats. The interaction of moderate and severe protein-energy malnutrition (PEM) was also investigated. 2. Status of oxidative/antioxidative profile was studied by the mechanistic approach, to enumerate the nature of injury. 3. Successful hepatic injury in rats was produced by giving intraperitoneal injection of RMP (50 mg/kg/day). 4. Hepatic lipid peroxidation was significantly increased in all the RMP treated rats. 5. Superoxide dismutase, catalase and glutathione peroxidase activities in the hepatic tissue decreased with RMP treatment. 6. Hepatic thiols represented as total and protein-bound thiols, showed significant elevation, whereas the non protein thiols remain unchanged with RMP treatment. 7. Glutathione-S-transferases also showed significant elevation against 1,2-dichloro-4 nitrobenzene (DCNB) and ethacrynic acid (EA) as substrates. 8. The oxidative/antioxidative profile was observed to be more severely affected with coexistence of malnutrition. 9. Histopathological correlation showed an additional fatty infiltration of hepatocytes with coexistence of malnutrition. 10. Thus, in conclusion, it can be speculated that an altered oxidative/antioxidative profile is the closely associated with production of RMP induced hepatic injury.