Current Science

Open Access Open Access  Restricted Access Subscription Access

Determination of Tolerable Dose of Litchi Fruit Considering Reported Hypoglycin A And MCPG Contents through Biochemical and Histopathological Evaluations in Mice


Affiliations
1 Food Technology Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai 400 085, India
2 Radiation Biology and Health Science Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai 400 085, India
3 Homi Bhabha National Institute, Anushaktinagar, Mumbai 400 094, India
 

Litchi fruit has recently been reported to be associat-ed with encephalopathy outbreaks in India due to presence of hypoglycaemic phytotoxins, hypoglycin A (HGA) and methylenecyclopropyl-glycine (MCPG). Therefore, a need was felt to determine safe tolerable dose of fruit based upon animal feeding studies. Swiss albino female mice (in each group, n = 6) were fed in both starved and unstarved conditions with maximum possible quantity of litchi pulp within 10 h duration at 2.5 h intervals (total quantity ~16 g). This did not re-sult in hypoglycaemia, weight loss or changes in be-haviour. Haematology profile, liver and kidney functions remain unchanged. Histopathological analy-sis of brain, liver and kidney too did not indicate any structural changes. From the reported range of above toxins in litchi pulp the quantity fed corresponds to the cumulative minimum concentration of 2.48 and ~9.0 mg/kg body weight of mice for HGA and MCPG respectively, which is lesser than LD50 values of these toxins, i.e. 90–100 mg/kg body weight reported in rat. Thus based upon equivalent dose-quantity conversion, approx. 3.9 kg of litchi pulp/day for an adult human (weighing 60 kg) and 0.59–1.17 kg of pulp/day for children (1–5 years of age respectively) could be con-sidered a safe quantity.

Keywords

Blood Glucose, Brain, Haematology, Kidney, Liver, Organ Function Tests.
User
Notifications
Font Size

  • Hajare, S. N. et al., Quality profile of litchi (Litchi chinensis) cultivars from India and effect of radiation processing. Radiat. Phys. Chem., 2010, 79, 994–1004.

  • Souza, M., Singh, R., Reddy, P., Hukkeri, V. and Byahatti, V., Hepatoprotective activity of fruit pulp extract of Litchi chinensis Sonner on carbon tetrachloride-induced hepatotoxicity in albino rats. Int. J. Alt. Med., 2006, 4, 1–5.

  • Irene, P. R., Babu, D. J., Rao, N. V. and Sheikh, R. A., Nootropic activity of fruit extracts of Litchi chinensis Sonn (Sapindaceae). Int. J. Pharm. Tech., 2012, 4, 4795–4804.

  • Kilari, E. and Putta, S., Biological and phytopharmacological descriptions of Litchi chinensis. Phcog. Rev., 2016, 10, 60–65.

  • Yewale, V., Misery of mystery of Muzaffarpur. Indian Pediatr., 2014, 51, 605–606.

  • Narain, J. P., Dhariwal, A. C. and MacIntyre, C. R., Acute en-cephalitis in India: an unfolding tragedy. Indian J. Med. Res., 2017, 145, 584–587.

  • Joshi, R., Kalantri, S. P., Reingold, A. and Colford Jr, J. M., Changing landscape of acute encephalitis syndrome in India: a systematic review. Natl. Med. J. India, 2012, 25, 212–220.

  • Dinesh, D. S. et al., Possible factors causing acute encephalitis syndrome outbreak in Bihar, India. Int. J. Curr. Microbiol. Appl. Sci., 2013, 2, 531–538.

  • Paireau, J., Tuan, N. H., Lefrancois, R., Buckwalterm, M. R. and Nghia, N. D., Litchi-associated acute encephalitis in children, Northern Vietnam, 2004–2009. Emerg. Infect. Dis., 2012, 18, 817–824.

  • Bandyopadhyay, B., Chakraborty, D., Ghosh, S., Mishra, R. and Rahman, M., Epidemiological investigation of an outbreak of acute encephalitis syndrome (AES) in Malda district of West Ben-gal, India. Clin. Microbiol., 2015, 4, 181; doi:10.4172/2327-3635073.1000181.

  • Islam, M. S. et al., Outbreak of sudden death with acute encephali-tis syndrome among children associated with exposure to lychee orchards in northern Bangladesh. Am. J. Trop. Med. Hyg., 2017, 97, 949–957.

  • John, T. J. and Das, M., Acute encephalitis syndrome in children in Muzaffarpur: hypothesis of toxic origin. Curr. Sci., 2014, 106, 184–185.

  • Shrivastava, A. et al., Association of acute toxic encephalopathy with litchi consumption in an outbreak in Muzaffarpur, India, 2014: a case-control study. Lancet Glob. Health, 2017, 5, 458–466.

  • Sherratt, H. S. A., Hypoglycin, the famous toxin of the unripe Jamaican ackee fruit. Trend. Pharm. Sci., 1986, 7, 375.

  • Gaillard, Y., Carlier, J., Berscht, M., Mazoyer, C., Bevalot, F., Guitton, J. and Fanton, L., Fatal intoxication due to ackee (Blighia sapida) in Suriname and French Guyana. GC-MS detection and quantification of hypoglycin-A. Forensic Sci. Int., 2011, 206, 103–107.

  • Melde, K., Buttener, H., Boschert, W., Wolf, H. P. and Ghisla, S., Mechanism of hypoglycaemic action of methylenecyclopropylgly-cine. Biochem. J., 1989, 259, 921–924.

  • Osmundsen, H., Billington, D., Taylor, J. R. and Sherratt, H. S., The effects of hypoglycin on glucose metabolism in the rat. Bio-chem. J., 1978, 170, 337–342.

  • Feng, P. C. and Patrick, S. J., Studies of the action of hypoglycin-A, an hypoglycaemic substance. Br. J. Pharmacol., 1958, 13, 125–130.

  • Emanuel, M. A. and Benkeblia, N., Processing of ackee fruit (Blighia sapida L.): present and future perspectives. Acta Hortic., 2011, 894, 211–213.

  • Chang, A., Orth, A., Le, B., Menchavez, P. and Miller, L., Performance analysis of the onetouch® UltraVue™ blood glucose monitoring system. J. Diabetes Sci. Technol., 2009, 3, 1158– 1165.

  • Garber, C. C., Jendrassik-Grof analysis for total and direct biliru-bin in serum with a centrifugal analyser. Clin. Chem., 1981, 27, 1410–1416.

  • Reitman, S. and Frankel, S. A., Colorimetric method for the deter-mination of serum glutamic oxalacetic and glutamic pyruvic trans-aminases. Am. J. Clin. Pathol., 1957, 28, 56–63.

  • Bessey, O. A., Lowry, O. H. and Brock, M. J., A method for the rapid determination of alkaline phosphatase with five cubic milli-meters of serum. J. Biol. Chem., 1946, 164, 321–329.

  • Toora, B. D. and Rajagopal, G., Measurement of creatinine by Jaffe’s reaction – determination of concentration of sodium hydroxide required for maximum color development in standard, urine and protein free filtrate of serum. Indian J. Exp. Biol., 2002, 40, 352–354.

  • Jung, D., Biggs, H., Erikson, J. and Ledyard, P. U., New colori-metric reaction for end-point, continuous-flow, and kinetic meas-urement of urea. Clin. Chem., 1975, 21, 1136–1140.

  • Connerty, H. V. and Briggs, A. R., Determination of serum calcium by means of orthocresolphthalein complexone. Am. J. Clin. Pathol., 1966, 45, 290–296.

  • Taussky, H. H. and Shorr, E. A., Microcolorimetric method for the determination of inorganic phosphorus. J. Biol. Chem., 1953, 202, 675–685.

  • Ibrahim S. R. M. and Mohamed, G. A., Litchi chinensis: medicinal uses, phytochemistry, and pharmacology. J. Ethnopharm., 2015, 174, 492–513.

  • Arika, W. M., Nayamai, D. W., Osano, K. O., Ngugi, M. P. and Njagi, E. N. M., Biochemical markers of in vivo hepatotoxicity. J. Clin. Toxicol., 2016, 6, 297; doi:10.4172/2161-0495.1000297.

  • Basu, S., Haldar, N., Bhattacharya, S., Biswas, S. and Biswas, M., Hepatoprotective activity of Litchi chinensis leaves against para-cetamol-induced liver damage in rats. Am. Eur. J. Sci. Res., 2012, 7, 77–81.

  • Chen, L., Chang, C., Tsay, J. and Weng, B. B., Hepatoprotective effects of litchi (Litchi chinensis) procyanidin A2 on carbon tetrachloride-induced liver injury in ICR mice. Exp. Ther. Med., 2017, 13, 2839–2847.

  • Adamu, S. M., Wudil, A. M., Alhassan, A. J., Koki, Y. A. and Adamu, S., A review on biomarkers of kidney dysfunction in orthopaedic cases. IOSR J. Dental Med. Sci., 2016, 15, 88–98.

  • Nair, A. B. and Jacob, S., A simple practice guide for dose con-version between animals and human. J. Basic Clin. Pharm., 2016, 7, 27–31.


Abstract Views: 515

PDF Views: 112




  • Determination of Tolerable Dose of Litchi Fruit Considering Reported Hypoglycin A And MCPG Contents through Biochemical and Histopathological Evaluations in Mice

Abstract Views: 515  |  PDF Views: 112

Authors

Jyoti Tripathi
Food Technology Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai 400 085, India
Nilantana Bandyopadhyay
Food Technology Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai 400 085, India
Sachin N. Hajare
Food Technology Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai 400 085, India
Surbhi Wadhawan
Food Technology Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai 400 085, India
Haladhar Dev Sarma
Radiation Biology and Health Science Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai 400 085, India
Satyendra Gautam
Homi Bhabha National Institute, Anushaktinagar, Mumbai 400 094, India

Abstract


Litchi fruit has recently been reported to be associat-ed with encephalopathy outbreaks in India due to presence of hypoglycaemic phytotoxins, hypoglycin A (HGA) and methylenecyclopropyl-glycine (MCPG). Therefore, a need was felt to determine safe tolerable dose of fruit based upon animal feeding studies. Swiss albino female mice (in each group, n = 6) were fed in both starved and unstarved conditions with maximum possible quantity of litchi pulp within 10 h duration at 2.5 h intervals (total quantity ~16 g). This did not re-sult in hypoglycaemia, weight loss or changes in be-haviour. Haematology profile, liver and kidney functions remain unchanged. Histopathological analy-sis of brain, liver and kidney too did not indicate any structural changes. From the reported range of above toxins in litchi pulp the quantity fed corresponds to the cumulative minimum concentration of 2.48 and ~9.0 mg/kg body weight of mice for HGA and MCPG respectively, which is lesser than LD50 values of these toxins, i.e. 90–100 mg/kg body weight reported in rat. Thus based upon equivalent dose-quantity conversion, approx. 3.9 kg of litchi pulp/day for an adult human (weighing 60 kg) and 0.59–1.17 kg of pulp/day for children (1–5 years of age respectively) could be con-sidered a safe quantity.

Keywords


Blood Glucose, Brain, Haematology, Kidney, Liver, Organ Function Tests.

References





DOI: https://doi.org/10.18520/cs%2Fv117%2Fi8%2F1292-1299