Acute Oral Toxicity and Genotoxicity of Polysaccharide Fraction from Young Barley Leaves (Hordeum vulgare L.).

Chang-Won Cho,Jae Woong Choi,Kyung-Tae Lee,Hee-Do Hong,Youn-Hwan Hwang,Young-Ran Song,Won-Chul Lim,Young Kyoung Rhee

doi:10.3390/foods9060809

Abstract

Polysaccharides isolated from various plants are considered precious bioactive materials owing to their potent biological activities. Previously, we prepared a polysaccharide fraction (BLE0) isolated from young barley leaves (Hordeum vulgare L.), demonstrating its anti-osteoporotic and immunostimulatory activities. However, data regarding BLE0 toxicity is lacking. To establish its safety, in vitro genotoxicity (chromosomal aberration and bacterial reverse mutation assays) and acute oral toxicity assays were conducted. In the in vitro genotoxicity assays, bacterial reverse mutation and chromosomal aberration assays showed that BLE0 possessed no mutagenicity or clastogenicity. Furthermore, the median lethal dose (LD50) of BLE0 was higher than 5000 mg/kg in female and male Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats and no adverse effects were observed in terms of mortality and abnormal changes in clinical signs (body weight and necropsy). Based on these results, BLE0 was found to be safe with regards to genotoxicity under our test conditions, demonstrating no acute oral toxicity up to 5000 mg/kg in SD rats.

Highlights

Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) is an edible crop belonging to the family Poaceae, and is mainly used as a food source in East Asia, including Korea [1]
BLE0 was obtained from young barley leaves by utilizing pectinase-assisted extraction at a pilot-scale for commercial production
The sugar composition of BLE0 was further analyzed by HPAEC-PAD revealing that BLE0 was mainly composed of xylose, galactose, arabinose, glucose and galacturonic acid, in addition to fucose, rhamnose and glucuronic acid

Summary

Introduction

Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) is an edible crop belonging to the family Poaceae, and is mainly used as a food source in East Asia, including Korea [1]. Barley is known to contain various functional ingredients such as lutonarin, saponarin, β-glucan and various policosanols [2,3]. It has been reported that after seeding, young barley leaves (15–20 cm in size) contain a large amount of superoxide dismutase and vitamin C, which decompose free radicals [4]. Young barley leaves contain a large amount of saponarin, which demonstrates improved liver function as well as inhibits α-glucosidase, a diabetes-related enzyme, among polyphenol compounds [5,6]. Studies evaluating the various biological activities of the young barley leaf, such as antioxidant, antidiabetic, antidepressant and hypolipidemic effects, have been reported [1,2,7,8,9].

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