title: A 4-week, repeated, intravenous dose, toxicity test of mountain ginseng pharmacopuncture in sprague-dawley rats.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Mountain ginseng pharmacopuncture (MGP) is a pharmacopuncture made by distilling extract from mountain cultivated ginseng or mountain wild ginseng. This pharmacopuncture is injected intravenously, which is a quick, lossless way of strongly tonifying Qi function. The present study was undertaken to evaluate a 4-week, repeated, intravenous injection, toxicity test of MGP in Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats.
  
  
  METHODS
  Twenty male and female 6-week-old SD rats were used as subjects. We divided the SD rats into 4 groups: the high-dosage (10 mL/kg), medium-dosage (5 mL/kg), low-dosage (2.5 mL/kg) and control (normal saline) groups. MGP or normal saline was injected intravenously into the caudal vein of the rats once daily for 4 weeks. Clinical signs, body weights, and food consumption were monitored during the observation period, and hematology, serum biochemistry, organ weight, necropsy, and histological examinations were conducted once the observations had been completed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  No mortality was observed in any of the groups during the observation period. No changes due to MGP were observed in the experimental groups regarding clinical signs, body weights, food consumption, hematology, serum biochemistry, organ weight and necropsy. No histological changes due to MGP were observed in any of the male or female rats in the high-dosage group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  During this 4-week, repeated, intravenous injection, toxicity test of MGP in SD rats, no toxic changes due to MGP were observed in any of the male or female rats in the high-dosage group. Thus, we suggest that the high and the low doses in a 13-week, repeated test should be 10 mL/kg and 2.5 mL/kg, respectively.
authors.affiliation: Department of Acupuncture & Moxibustion Medicine, College of Korean Medicine, Sangji University, Wonju, Korea.
authors.forename: Kwangho
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Sasang Constitutional Medicine, College of Korean Medicine, Sangji University, Wonju, Korea.
authors.forename: Junsang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, College of Korean Medicine, Sangji University, Wonju, Korea.
authors.forename: Seungho
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Research Center of the Korean Pharmacopuncture Institute, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Kirok
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kwon
authors.affiliation: Department of Acupuncture & Moxibustion Medicine, College of Korean Medicine, Sangji University, Wonju, Korea.
authors.forename: Chungsan
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lim
keywords: intravenous injection; mountain ginseng; pharmacopuncture; toxicity test