Subchronic toxicological evaluation of brea gum (Parkinsonia preacox) as a food additive in BALB/c mice

Abstract

Brea gum is a phloematic exudate from Parkinsonia praecox, an autoctonous tree that grows in the arid areas of Argentina. In this work, we propose its potential as a food additive. However, as no toxicological safety evaluation of brea gum has yet been reported, this preliminary study was conducted to evaluate its long-term toxicity over a 120-day period in BALB/c mice fed with brea gum at various levels in the diet. The results showed that animals on diets containing up to 5% brea gum were healthy, exhibiting growth curves similar to controls for both males (P = 0.9138) and females (P = 0.9459), thereby indicating that feed intake and utilization was not affected. A histopathological examination and weight recording of liver, kidneys, and intestine did not reveal any microscopic abnormalities or adverse toxicological effect (weights respect to control: P > 0.1). Moreover, hematological parameters and enzyme activities were within the normal values previously reported for mice. Our findings suggest that feeding brea gum at levels up to 5% to BALB/c mice do not exert any toxicological effects, supporting its potential use as a food additive for human consumption.

Keywords::

• Plant gums
• parkinsonia praecox
• tree exudates
• safety evaluation
• food additive

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Dra. Papagenadio, Dra. Vigna, and Dra. Manrique (Clinical Biochemists for Hospital Universitario de Maternidad y Neonatología; UNC) for biochemical analyses. Axel von Müller wishes to thank Secretaría de Ciencia y Tecnología (UNC) for the postgraduate fellowship and to CONICET (Buenos Aires, Argentina) for the laboratory facilities.

Declaration of interest: The authors report no financial conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this paper.