13-Week repeated oral dose toxicity study on mixture of Korean red ginseng and deer antler extract in Sprague-Dawley rats

Owing to an increase in the consumption of herbal products as supplementary diets or functional foods, their safety has become an important issue. Repeated oral administration to rats for 13-week was performed to evaluate the potential toxicity of a mixture of Korean red ginseng and deer antler extract, the most popular traditional herbal ingredients. Three test groups for the mixture of Korean red ginseng and deer antler extract were administered at 500, 1000, and 2000 mg/kg/day in addition to a control group (water for injection). 10 male and 10 female rats were included in each group, and we evaluated the clinical, clinicopathological, and histopathological changes in the rats. One male rat in the test group at 1000 mg/kg/day died; however, it was considered a spontaneous death unrelated to the administration of the test substance. No test substance-related toxic effects were noted in rats in terms of body weight, food consumption, ophthalmological findings, urinalysis, hematological parameters, blood biochemical parameters, organ weights, gross postmortem findings, and histopathological findings. The present results suggest that the no observed adverse effect level of the mixture of Korean red ginseng and deer antler extract was greater than 2000 mg/kg/day in all rats after repeated oral administration for 13-week under the present study conditions.