Safety assessment of powdered Cistanche deserticola Y. C. Ma by a 90-day feeding test in Sprague-Dawley rats

Abstract Cistanche deserticola (C. deserticola), a holoparasitic plant widely distributed in arid or semi-arid areas in Eurasia and North Africa, has been used as an important tonic in traditional Eastern medicine for centuries. However, little information on the systemic toxicity and safety evaluation of it is available. The purpose of this study was to investigate the potential toxicity of powdered C. deserticola as a novel food ingredient by use of a subchronic toxicity study in Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats. A total of 80 male and female rats were fed with diets containing 8, 4, 2 and 0% (control) powdered C. deserticola for 90 days. A toxicological assessment was performed including mortality, body and organ weight, food consumption, blood biochemistry, hematology, gross necropsy and histopathological examinations. There were no signs of toxicity and treatment-related changes in rats treated with powdered C. deserticola. The no-observed-adverse-effect level (NOAEL) of powdered C. deserticola was 7.8 g kg−1 body weight for males and 8.0 g kg−1 body weight for females of rats under the experimental conditions of this study.

[1]  Jun Ma,et al.  Neuroprotective Effects of Cistanches Herba Therapy on Patients with Moderate Alzheimer's Disease , 2015, Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM.

[2]  Fei Yang,et al.  Safety assessment of the fermented Phylloporia ribis (Lonicera japonica Thunb.) mycelia by oral acute toxicity study in mice and 90-day feeding study in rats. , 2014, Food and chemical toxicology : an international journal published for the British Industrial Biological Research Association.

[3]  W. Xie,et al.  Cistanche deserticola Y. C. Ma, "Desert ginseng": a review. , 2012, The American journal of Chinese medicine.

[4]  Li Wei.  Determination of the Polysaccharides Content in Herba Cistanche , 2012 .

[5]  M. Oh,et al.  Cistanches Herba enhances learning and memory by inducing nerve growth factor , 2011, Behavioural Brain Research.

[6]  P. Tu,et al.  Analysis of chemical constituents in Cistanche species. , 2009, Journal of chromatography. A.

[7]  P. Tu,et al.  Identification of Cistanche species by chemical and inter-simple sequence repeat fingerprinting. , 2009, Biological & pharmaceutical bulletin.

[8]  K. Ko,et al.  Enhancement of ATP generation capacity, antioxidant activity and immunomodulatory activities by Chinese Yang and Yin tonifying herbs , 2007, Chinese medicine.

[9]  K. Tsim,et al.  An arabinogalactan isolated from the stems of Cistanche deserticola induces the proliferation of cultured lymphocytes. , 2005, International journal of biological macromolecules.

[10]  Ji Ding-guo.  Introduction of GB/T 5009—2003 Methods of Food Hygienic Analysis-physical and chemical section , 2005 .

[11]  Xiaoping Pu,et al.  Neuroprotective effects of phenylethanoid glycosides from Cistanches salsa against 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP)-induced dopaminergic toxicity in C57 mice. , 2004, Biological & pharmaceutical bulletin.

[12]  Q. Xiong,et al.  Antioxidative effects of phenylethanoids from Cistanche deserticola. , 1996, Biological & pharmaceutical bulletin.