The Food Safety of Superfine Saengshik Processed by Top-down Technique in Mice

초록

Saengshik is an uncooked and powdered functional food composed of various edible plants, and has been consumed widely due to its health benefits and convenient uptake. Recently, superfine ground saengshik, which contains a certain extent of nanoscale particles, has been commercialized to enhance efficacy, but its safety has not been determined. This study was conducted to evaluate the food safety of superfine saengshik (SS) through general toxicity examination after oral uptake in mice compared to conventional fine saengshik (FS). The SS particle size distribution was 0.479-26.303 mu m in diameter, with about 68.92% of particles with a diameter <0.955 lam. From our safety evaluation, the number of white blood cells (WBCs) and biochemical values in the serum fell into the normal range, and the weight of organs showed no significant difference between FS and SS groups. Histological observation of the liver, small intestine and large intestine did not show any abnormal or pathological findings under light microscopy. Our results suggest that oral intake of SS is not harmful to mice in terms of general toxicity.

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