• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.323-333
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• 2009

Parabens are alkyl esters of p-hydroxybenzoic acid, which are widely used in foods, cosmetics, and pharmaceutic products as preservatives. Absorbed parabens are metabolized fastly and excreted. Actually human body is exposed to complex mixture of parabens. Safety assessment at various toxicological end points revealed parabens have a little acute, subacute and chronic toxicities. Some reports have argued that as parabens have estrogenic activity, they are associated with the incidence of breast cancer through dermal absorption by cosmetics. There is an inference that antiandrogenic activity of parabens may give rise to a lesion of male reproductive system, but also there is an contrary. At cellular level, parabens may inhibit mitochondrial function of sperms and androgen production in testis, but also there is an contrary. Parabens seem to have little or no toxicity in embryonic development. Parabens can cause hemolysis, membrane permeability change in mitochondria and apoptosis, suggesting cellular toxicity of parabens. Parabens evoked endocrine disruption in several fish species and have toxic effect on small invertebrates and microbes. Therefore, the toxicity of parabens should be considered as a potentially toxic chemical in the freshwater environment. In conclusion, though parabens may be considered as a low toxic chemical, more definite data are required concerning the endocrine disrupting effect of parabens on human body and aquatic animals according to route and term of exposure as well as the residual concentration of parabens.

• Journal of Pharmacopuncture
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.27-37
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• 2023

Objectives: Moroccan Arbutus unedo is an essential medicinal plant; however, little is known about the biological properties of its leaves mentioned in Moroccan traditional medicine. Methods: Various standard experiments were performed to evaluate the phytochemical, antidiabetic, antioxidant, antibacterial, and acute and sub-chronic toxicity characteristics of A. unedo leaves. Results: Phytochemical screening led to the identification of several phytochemical classes, including tannins, flavonoids, terpenoids, and anthraquinones, with high concentrations of polyphenols (31.83 ± 0.29 mg GAEs/g extract) and flavonoids (16.66 ± 1.47 mg REs/g extract). Further, the mineral analysis revealed high levels of calcium and potassium. A. unedo extract demonstrated significant antioxidant and anti-diabetic activities by inhibiting α-amylase (1.350 ± 0.32 g/mL) and α-glucosidase (0.099 ± 1.21 g/mL) compared to the reference drug Acarbose. Also, the methanolic extract of the plant exhibited significantly higher antibacterial activity than the aqueous extract. Precisely, three of the four examined bacterial strains exhibited substantial susceptibility to the methanolic extract . Minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC)/minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values indicated that A. unedo harbor abundant bactericidal compounds. For toxicological studies, mice were administered with A. unedo aqueous extract at single doses of 2,000 and 5,000 mg/kg. They did not exhibit significant abnormal behavior, toxic symptoms, or death during the 14-day acute toxicity test and the 90-day sub-chronic toxicity test periods. The general behavior, body weight, and hematological and biochemical status of the rats were assessed, revealing no toxicological symptoms or clinically significant changes in biological markers observed in the mice models, except hypoglycemia, after 90 days of daily dose administration. Conclusion: The study highlighted several biological advantages of A. unedo leaves without toxic effects in short-term application. Our findings suggest that conducting more comprehensive and extensive in vivo investigations is of utmost importance to identify molecules that can be formulated into pharmaceuticals in the future.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.329-332
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• 2006

Ethanolic extract of Aloe vera (Aloe barbadensis Miller) was examined for the cellular toxicity on HepG2 human hepatocellular carcinoma cells. Treatment with Aloe vera extract resulted in DNA fragmentation but not LDH release, suggesting an apoptosis instead of necrosis. Aloe vera induced cytotoxicity was mediated by decrease in ATP levels, whereas GSH depletion, increase in intracellular $Ca^{2+}$, or activation of caspase-3/7 could not be observed with statistical significance. No activation of caspase-3/7 suggests the possibility of caspase-independent apoptosis. Taken together, our results show that Aloe vera extract induce HepG2 apoptosis by ATP depletion-related impairment of mitochondria, which is caspase-independent.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.101-111
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• 1996

The local irritation studies of DA-3285, recombinant human erytropoietin(rHu-EPO), were carried out in rabbits after the following treatment; single application into the conjunctival sac of the eye, single subcutaneous injection, 7-day repeated subcutaneous injection and 8-day repeated infusion into the ear vein. Also, the local irritancy of DA-3285 leaked around vein was studied in mice by single perivascular injection. The results obtained were as follows. In the result of ocular irritation test, DA-3285 could be considered as a non-irritating material. In single and 7-day repeated subcutaneous irritation test, the irritancy of DA-3285 was not so much different from that of saline. The vascular irritancy of DA3285 by 8-day repeated infusion was negligible and similar to that of saline. And the irritancy of DA3285 by perivascular injection was comparable to that of saline. These results indicate that DA-3285 has no irritating activity when injected through subcutaneous or intravenous route for clinical practice as 3.5% solution.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Toxicology Conference
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• 2002.11b
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• pp.194-194
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• 2002

Interferon has therapeutic potential for a wide range of infectious and proliferous disorders such as chronic hepatitis C. However, it has drawbacks such as relatively short serum half-life and rapid clearance like other therapeutic proteins. The attachment of a polyethylene glycol (PEG) moiety to interferon is considered as one of the most promising solutions for its ability to extend the plasma residence time.(omitted)

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.68-77
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• 2001

Herbal medicines have been used since ancient times as medicines to treat and relieve the symptoms of many different human diseases. However, so far, relatively few herbal medicines have been evaluated scientifically to prove their safety, potential benefits and effectiveness. This study was conducted to provide the groundwork for improving the current registration regulations for herbal medicines in distinction from synthetic medicines. The study was performed based on the literature research and individual interviews with 5 experts who had extensive experience in registration of herbal medicines. When compared with synthetic drugs, herbal medicines exhibit some marked differences, namely the active principles are frequently unknown, standardization, stability and quality control are not easy, they are usually mixtures of complex compounds. Second, the current regulations for herbal medicines are reviewed by comparison of foreign regulation systems like the one in China. The regulation requirements of herbal medicine in China are in distinction from synthetic drugs. The authors conclude that new registration requirements for the herbal medicines should be changed as follows; the toxicity and efficacy data should be submitted as mixed herbal preparation and the documents and other research on the reproduction and generation toxicity need to be shown for the proof of reproduction and generation toxicity, if needed.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.97-106
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• 2001

Korean ginseng products have been fumigated with ethylene oxide (EO) for sterilization and prolongation of storage periods. However, there had been controversies indicating that the consumption of food treated with EO might cause harmful effects in human. Since, in Korea the use of EO gas for food treatment was banned in 1991. Since then, irradiation technique has been developed as an alternative. This study was carried out to investigate the effects of irradiated ginseng on fertility, and reproductive and developmental toxicity. Either EO gas fumigated or gamma-irradiated ginseng was administered to male rats by oral gavage for 63 days during the premating period. Female rats were administered from 14 days before mating to day 20 of gestation or to day 21 of lactation. The exposure amount of irradiation used was 5, 10 and 30 kGy, respectively. There were no treatment related changes of darns in clinical signs, and parturition. No treatment related changes in food consumption, body/organ weights, male/female reproductive and fertility performances were observed. F1 fetuses showed no external abnormality. Reflex/sensory junctions, physical/behavioral development, and reproductive performance of F1 rats were not adversary affected. The results of this study show that gamma-irradiated ginseng, up to 30 kGy, has no adverse effects on the fertility, reproduction and development in Wistar rats.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.139-147
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• 2002

Hantaan (HTNV) and Puumala (PUUV) viruses cause hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome in human. In the present study, the repeated dose toxicity of the HTNV-PUUV combination vaccine was evaluated in Sprague-Dawley rats. Animals were injected subcutaneously for 28 days with dosages of 0, 0.017, 0.17 and 1.7 dose/kg body weight per day, respectively. No any significant changes of body weight, food and water consumptions were shown. There were no death and clinical findings during the experimental period. In both male and female rats, there were not significant changes in hematological and serum biochemical analysis, urinalysis, and ophthalmoscopic and histopathological examination. These results indicate that the HTNV-PUUV combination vaccine may have no toxic effects and no observed adverse effect level (NOAEL) may be over 1.7 dose/kg/day at subcutaneous route in rats.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.143-148
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• 2014

Arecoline is a major alkaloid of areca nuts which are widely chewed by southeast Asian and it manifests various toxic effects in different organs of human and animals. In this work, mature mice were treated by vitamins C plus E, arecoline, or both daily for four weeks. The results showed that arecoline significantly increased the levels of serum alkaline phosphatase (ALP), glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase (GOT), glutamate pyruvate transaminase (GPT) and significantly decreased the levels of reduced glutathione (GSH), glutathione-S-transferase (GST), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) in the liver tissues. Additionally, the body weight, testis weight, sperm counts, motility and normal sperms also were significantly decreased. The supplement of vitamins C and E can bring the activities of ALP and GPT to normal levels and partially restore the sperm counts compared to the arecoline-treated group but have no other positive effects. In conclusion, the vitamins C and E partially attenuated the arecoline-induced hepatotoxiciy but basically had on protective effects against the arecoline-induced testicular toxicity.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.31 no.4 s.85
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• pp.254-259
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• 2005

Permethrin, a synthetic pyrethroid insecticide, has been widely used to protect domestic animals and the public health, as well as in agriculture against a variety of pests, which provides potential for environmental exposure. Permethrin is classified as possible human carcinogen and endocrine disrupting chemical by many international authorities. However, its developmental effects have been rarely studied. This study investigated the effects of permethrin during embryo-genesis. Developmental toxicity of permethrin was evaluated using short-term in vitro battery system. Gestation day 9.5 rat embryos (organogenesis) were cultured with permethrin (0.1,0.4 and 0.8 mg/ml) for 48 hours using whole embryo culture system. All the treatments exhibited significant decreases in the total morphological score. Permethrin induced significant growth retardation and the developmental abnormality at doses of 0.4 and 0.8 mg/ml. Moreover, the DNA and protein contents of embryos decreased in dose-dependent manner. These observations suggest that permethrin contributes to toxicity on embryonic developments in rats.