Safety assessment of Cordyceps guangdongensis

Cordyceps guangdongensis as a kind of fungus, has been discovered and cultivated successfully in recent years. However, its safety assessments have not been studied. In this report, a serial of tests for toxicological safety assessments were depicted in details. These tests included bacterial reverse mutation (Ames) study, bone marrow cell micronucleus test in mice, sperm aberration test in mice, teratogenicaction test in rats, acute toxicity test and 13-week oral toxicity study in rats. After a profound analysis of these tests, it clearly demonstrated that C. guangdongensis did not have any mutagenic, clastogenic nor genotoxic effects: the oral LD50 of the biomass in rats was greater than 15 g/kg body weight; the no-observed adverse-effect-levels (NOAEL) was 5.33 g/kg body weight according to the 13-week oral toxicity analysis. Therefore, a conclusion can be drawn that C. guangdongensis is considered safe for long term consumption. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.