Summary Angelica keiskei (Ashitaba) is a perennial plant belonging to the Umbelliferae family. Recently, much attention has been focused on Ashitaba products as a so-called health food for the breakdown of cellulite among various physiological benefits of Ashitaba. The current study was carried out to investigate the physiological efficacy of dietary Ashitaba on serum and liver lipid profiles and body fat accumulation in rats. Rats were fed a high-fat diet with various amounts of Ashitaba for 28 d. Perirenal adipose tissue weights of rats fed the ϫ 10 (170 mg/100 g BW) Ashitaba diet were significantly higher ( p Ͻ 0.05) than those of the control group. Serum triacylglycerol concentrations of rats fed the ϫ 100 (1,700 mg/100 g BW) Ashitaba diet were significantly higher ( p Ͻ 0.05) than those of the ϫ 1 (17 mg/100 g BW) group. Fecal weights and bile acid excretions of rats fed the ϫ 10 or ϫ 100 Ashitaba diet were significantly higher ( p Ͻ 0.05) than those of the control group. However, there were no significant differences in the body weight gain, epididymal adipose tissue weight, serum cholesterol or liver lipid concentrations or other biochemical profiles in the serum. Furthermore, even the excessive ingestion of Ashitaba had no significant pathological impact on the liver or kidney. These results indicate that the large intake of Ashitaba products may supply dietary fiber and thus improve gastrointestinal condition through the increased excretion of feces containing high level of bile acids, although even excessive intake of Ashitaba for a short period of 28 d did not show any impact on the decrease in body fat or modification of lipid profiles in this study.

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The aim of this study was to know a difference of lip-closing force (LCF) between 2 measuring methods; 1) the measuring probe was gripped by subjects during measurement (gripped method) and 2) the measuring probe was fixed on the pole (fixed method). In 40 healthy young subjects (15 females, 25 males, mean age = 29.8 ± 5.0 years), LCFs in eight directions during maximum voluntary pursing-like lip closure tasks were recorded by 2 kinds of methods. In male, summed values of LCFs for all eight directions (total LCF) by the gripped method was smaller than that by the fixed method. In female, total LCF was not different between 2 methods. In male, in many directional LCFs (5/6) and total LCF, significant correlations between 2 methods were observed. However, in female there were significant correlations between 2 methods only in 3 directional LCFs. From the results of male, LCF measured by gripped method might become smaller than that by fixed method. Because the data from female were variety, it was suggested that the data by gripped method in female were influenced by something beside the LCF.