Hubei University of Chinese Medicine, Hubei, China (People's Republic)
Disclosure(s):
Guoxun Chen, PhD: No relevant financial relationship(s) with ineligible companies to disclose.
Objectives: Food and medicine homology has been an attractive route to promote health. Artemisia argyi Lévl. et Vant., a perennial plant, has been used in China and other parts of the Eastern Asia for food and traditional medicine. The safety of its fresh and tender stalk and leaves (FTSL) has not been fully investigated.
Methods: To ensure the safety of base materials derived from Artemisia argyi, we compared the effects of dried powder of FTSL untreated (FTSL-UT) or treated (FTSL-T) with boiled alkaline solution on male and female Wistar rats in a 14-days acute oral toxicity test and a 28-day sub-chronic feeding experiment. Rats in the 14-day acute toxicity test were divided into 5 groups, a control group, FTSL-UT group, FTSL-T being boiled for 1, 3 or 5 min. The tested materials gavaged at about 7.5 g/kg body weight (BW). The 28-day feeding experiment included 7 groups, a control diet group, a diet supplemented with 2.5% (low), 5%(medium) or 10% (high) of dried powder of FTSL-UT or FTSL-T.
Results: Results of the 14-day acute study show that rats in the experimental groups did not show any toxicity symptoms and their plasma AST and ALT enzyme activities were comparable to that of the control animals. The median lethal dose (LD50) of either FTSL-UT or FTSL-T was more than 7.5g/kg BW, indicating that both they are nontoxic. The results of the 28-day study show that female rats in the 10% FTSL-T group had the lowest body weight gain, whereas the female rats in the 5% FTSL-UT group had the highest body weight gain. The male rats in the control group had the lowest growth rate, whereas other groups grew similarly. The plasma activities of ALT and AST, organ weight and their indices were comparable.
Conclusions: Our results demonstrate that both powders of FTSL-UT and FTSL-T are safe as base materials for food preparations. This work clearly shows the potential of Artemisia argyi as a food and medicine homology material.
Funding Sources: The start-up fund to the presenting author.
