Subchronic toxicity study of ulvan from Ulva pertusa (Chlorophyta) in Wistar rats

•The subchronic (6 months) toxicity of varying levels of ulvan extracted from Ulva pertusa was investigated.•Some significant clinical and pathological changes were observed in subchronic toxicity.•The no adverse effect level of ulvan from U. pertusa was 600 mg/kg bw per day.

Ulvan extracted from Ulva pertusa (Chlorophyta) is a group of sulfated heteropolysaccharide, for simplicity, the sulfated polysaccharide is referred to as ulvan in this paper. To our knowledge, there is no detailed report investigating the toxicity of ulvan. In this study, the subchronic (6 months) toxicity of varying levels of ulvan extracted from U. pertusa was investigated in Wistar rats after oral administration. ALT, ALB, ALP, WBC, PLT, and liver relative organ weigh of female rats showed significantly difference at 3000 mg/kg body weight per day, compared with control group. On the other hand, TG, T-CHO concentrations of female rats (6 months) were significantly decreased at 600, 1200 and 3000 mg/kg body weight per day. This result proved that ulvan had antihyperlipidemic activity. Beside, ulvan showed anticoagulant activity in this study. Overall, our findings indicated that ulvan had affected specific hematology, serum biochemistry parameters and liver, and had great differences between males and females rats.

Graphical abstractThe structure of ulvan, the main disaccharide units [β-D-Glcp A-(1 → 4)-α-L-Rhap 3s) and [α-L-Idop A-(1 → 4)-α-L-Rhap 3s], G: (1 → 4)-linked β-D-glucuronic acid; R: (1 → 4)-linked α-L-rham-nose-3-sulfate (linked with β-D-glucuronic acid); I: (1  → 4)-linked α-L-iduronic acid; R∗: (1 → 4)-linked α-L-rhamnose-3-sulfate (linked with α-L-iduronic acid).Download full-size image