Safety Evaluation of Turmeric Polysaccharide Extract: Assessment of Mutagenicity and Acute Oral Toxicity

Abstract

Curcuma longa Linn. (Zingiberaceae) commonly known as turmeric has long been used for centuries as a spice and household remedy. The present study was carried out to assess the possible mutagenic potential and acute oral toxicity of polysaccharide extract of turmeric rhizome (NR-INF-02) using standard tests. The standard battery of in vitro genotoxicity tests, bacterial reverse mutation test (BRMT), chromosome aberration (CA), and micronucleus (MN) tests were employed to assess the possible mutagenic activity of NR-INF-02 (Turmacin). The results showed no mutagenic effect with NR-INF-02 up to a dose of 5000 µg/mL in BRMT. The results on CA and MN tests revealed the non clastogenic activity of NR-INF-02 in a dose range of 250.36 to 2500 µg/mL with and without metabolic activation (S9). In acute oral toxicity study, NR-INF-02 was found to be safe up to 5 g/kg body weight in Wistar rats. Overall, results indicated that polysaccharide extract of C. longa was found to be genotoxically safe and also exhibited maximum tolerable dose of more than 5 g/kg rat body weight.

Turmeric (Curcuma longa) and its major constituent (curcumin) as nontoxic and safe substances: Review

“…During these 14 days, the amount of body weight gain was normal in all treated rats. In addition, necroscopy did not show any pathological effects in rats treated with turmeric polysaccharide extract and it was safe at the dose of 5,000 mg/kg to female albino Wistar rats (Velusami et al, ). Oral administration of 0.2% or 1% turmeric to Swiss mice through diet for 14 days showed toxic effects on liver.…”

“…At concentrations of 5,000 μg/ml of turmeric polysaccharide extract, no toxicity in bacteria was occurred and also it was not mutagenic up to 5,000 μg/ml. Also, there was no chromosomal aberration in human blood lymphocytes at concentrations of 250.36 to 2,500 μg/ml of turmeric polysaccharide extract (Velusami et al, ). Swiss albino mice that received 0.5% of turmeric (0.015% curcumin) through their diet for about 12 weeks did not show abnormalities in number and structure of bone marrow chromosomes, and also, mutagenic effect was not observed.…”

Dietary Polysaccharides and Immune Modulation

“…Dietary polysaccharides need to be evaluated for safety, due to their variability and high biological potential and to estimate the appropriate doses for human use and for clinical monitoring of adverse effects (Carbonero et al 2006;Alavi et al 2011;Velusami et al 2013).…”

Acute toxicity study of a polysaccharide based hydrogel from linseed for potential use in drug delivery system

“…Recently, toxicological studies of polysaccharides extracted from Plantago ovata (Erum et al, 2015), Mangifera indica (Amien et al, 2015), Araucaria heterophylla (Divvela, Duppala, Kolapalli, 2016), Curcuma longa (Velusami et al, 2013) have been conducted by different researchers. Additionally, chitosan and its derivatives are extensively used in various biomedical applications and evaluated through toxicity studies (Kean, Thanou, 2010;Hu et al, 2011).…”