Tissue cultured mountain ginseng adventitious roots ™: Safety and toxicity evaluation

Panax ginseng has strong anticancer, antidiabetic, antioxidant activity, various physiological functions, and is used as a nutritional and medicinal supplement. Tissue cultured mountain ginseng adventitious roots™ (TCMGARs) powder, which is derived from commercial scale bioreactor cultures, was tested for its consumption safety. The reverse mutation, chromosomal aberration and the micronucleus tests were found to show no significant mutagenicity. Furthermore, thirteen weeks of repeated dose toxicity of TCMGARs oral doses from 300-900 mg/kg, with a four-week recovery period, did not produce mortality or significant changes in the general behavior and gross appearance of the internal organs of rats. The absolute body weight, urine test, haematology, blood chemistry, absolute organ weight and histopathological examination of both main and recovery groups revealed that there were no differences between the control and the treated rats. These results confirm that TCMGARs are safe and nontoxic at an average dietary consumption level.