Subacute Oral Toxicity Study of Korean Red Ginseng Extract in Sprague-Dawley Rats

Ginseng is a well-known traditional medicine used in Asian countries for several thousand years, and it is currently applied to medicine, cosmetics, and nutritional supplements due to its many healing and energy-giving properties. It is well demonstrated that ginsenosides, the main ingredient of ginseng, produce a variety of pharmacological and therapeutic effects on central nerve system (CNS) disorders, cardiovascular disease, endocrine secretions, aging, and immune function. Korean red ginseng extract is a dietary supplement containing ginsenoside Rb1 and ginsenoside Rg1 extracted from Panax ginseng. While the pharmacokinetics and bioavailability of the extract have been well established, its toxicological properties remain obscure. Thus, four-week oral toxicity studies in rats were conducted to investigate whether Korean red ginseng extract could have a potential toxicity to humans. The test article was administered once daily by oral gavage to four groups of male and female Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats at dose levels of 0, 500, 1,000, and 2,000 mg/kg/day for four weeks. Neither deaths nor clinical symptoms were observed in any group during the experiment. Furthermore, no abnormalities in body weight, food consumption, ophthalmology, urinalysis, hematology, serum biochemistry, gross findings, organ weights, or histopathology were revealed related to the administration of the test article in either sex of any dosed group. Therefore, a target organ was not determined in this study, and the no observed adverse effect level (NOAEL) of Korean red ginseng extract was established to be 2,000 mg/kg/day.

Open Wedge High Tibial Osteotomy with Allogenous Bone Graft

PURPOSE: The purpose was trying to clarify utility of allogenous bone graft on open type high tibial osteotomy, among the method of treatment of osteoarthritis with genu varum deformity. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Working with eight patients who have osteoarthritis with genu varum deformity, performed the open type high tibial osteotomy. and after transplanting allogenous bone graft, fixed using L-shaped plate. Before and after the operation, measured the degree of correction of genu varum through radiography of anterior and posterior of weigh load, understudied degree of union by testing bone histology during removal of implant, and evaluated functional factor as well as improvement of patients using Lysholm's knee score and HSS knee score. RESULTS: According to radiography of anterior and posterior of weigh load, the average of varus angle was 5.3 +/- 3.2 degrees before operation, the average of correction angle was 16.1 +/- 4.1 degrees after operation and the average of valgus angle was 10.7 +/- 4.3 degrees. By radiography of anterior and posterior of weigh load and lateral taken during the continual observation, complete bone union was seen. It got result that bone histology of transplanted part was composed of osteologic tissue and ratio of live bone and dead bone was 3.3:1, which live bone was 76.7 +/- 8% by image analyzer (Pro Plus(R) system) during the implant removal. The average of correction loss angle was 1.5 +/- 1.0 degrees After 15.3 months, average period of observation, average of Lysholm's score and HSS knee score were increased from 66.2 +/- 8.3 to 75.7 +/- 9.1 and from 55.2 +/- 9.0 to 79.0 +/- 7.5 respectively. CONCLUSION: The method that using a transplantation of allogenous bone graft on open type high tibial osteotomy, can be a fine surgical technique because it gains a perfect union, has an inconsiderable loss of correction angle and precision of correction angle, and can be contributed to the improvement of functional knee joint.