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.

Keywords:

• Cistanche deserticola
• subchronic toxicity
• feeding study

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully thank Xiaoxiao Huang, Jieni Liang, Zhi Ruan, Jian Tan, Jiangwei Wang and Shuai Li (Institute of Toxicology, Guangxi CDC) for their technical assistance.

Disclosure of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. This work was supported by the Department of Science and Technology of Guangxi under Grant 14–91-04.