Safety Evaluation of Ashitaba (Angelica Keiskei) on Mutagenic Test, Single and 13-Weeks Oral Toxicity Tests

We evaluated the safety of Ashitaba (Angelica keiskei) in bacterial reverse mutation test as well as single and 13-weeks oral toxicity tests. In the bacterial reverse mutation test, ethanol extract of Ashitaba had no reverse mutation inducing activity on five bacterial strains with or without S9 metabolic activation. In the single oral toxicity test, Ashitaba powder (3,500 mg/kg/day) showed no adverse effects in male and female SD rats. In the 13-week repeated oral toxicity test, Ashitaba powder (875 and 1,750 mg/kg/day) showed no adverse effects on body weight, food consumption, blood biochemistry, hematology, urinalysis, ophthalmoscopy, organ weight and histopathology in male and female SD rats. These results indicate that Ashitaba is very safe foodstuff under the conditions of this study.