Effects of Excess Vitamin B1 or Vitamin B2 on Growth and Urinary Excretion of Water-soluble Vitamins in Weaning Rats

Abstract

To determine the tolerable upper intake levels of vitamin B(1) and vitamin B(2) in humans, we investigated the effects of excess thiamin or riboflavin administration on body weight gain, food intake, tissue weights, and urinary excretion of B-group vitamins in weaning rats. The weaning rats were freely fed ordinary diet containing 0.0006% thiamin-HCl or the same diet with 0.006%, 0.03%, 0.18% or 1.0% thiamin-HCl for 30 days, or the diet containing 0.0006% riboflavin or the same diet with 0.1%, 0.5 or 1.0% riboflavin for 22 days. Mild diarrhea was seen only in the rats fed with 1.0% thiamin-HCl diet. Excess thiamin-HCl or riboflavin did not affect body weight gains, food intake or tissue weights. The urinary excretions of water-soluble vitamins also did not differ among the diets. These results clearly showed that feeding a diet containing up to 1.0% thiamin-HCl or 1.0% riboflavin did not induce apparent adverse effects, and the no-observed-adverse-effect-levels (NOAELs) for thiamin-HCl and riboflavin in rats might be 1.0% in diet, corresponding to 900 mg/kg body weight/day.