Evaluation of Anticancer Activity and Toxicity of Tocotrienol Extracted from Rice Bran

Rice is the most important crop in Korea and its annual production of 5.2 million ton is followed by over 0.5 million ton of bran as by-products of milling process. Although rice bran contains various nutritious and pharmaceutical compounds, rice brans are rarely utilized as functional food sources in Korea. In recent, tocotrienols are well known having distinctive pharmaceutical effectiveness. So tocotrienols extracted from rice bran oil were evaluated about Pharmaceutical function. The $IC_{50}$ of tocotrienols products against liver cancer, HepG2 cells were $149mg\;mL^{-1}$, indicating anticancer activity of final products. By animal feeding tests, the final products containing tocotrienols did not induce any toxicity signs in mortality, Incidence of clinical signs, body weight, etc. after a single oral administration, which proved safety of the tocotrienol products. In conclusion, tocotrienol extracted from rice bran has pharmaceutical activity without any toxic effects, which is also suggested tocotrienol products may be a good fortifying nutrition far the health and medical care.

미강 추출 Tocotrienol의 항암 및 독성 평가

Tocotrienol의 건강식품 및 의료용 가공품으로의 고부가가치화 가능성을 평가하기 위하여 미강에서 추출한 tocotrienol의 항암 효과 및 독성평가를 실시하였다. HepG2 간암 세포를 대상으로 한 항암효과 분석 결과 tocotrienol이 간암세포의 증식을 억제함을 입증할 수 있었다. 또한 랫드를 이용한 경구독성 검사를 수행한 결과 tocotrienol 최종 생산물은 경구투여 한계량인 $2,000mg\;kg^{-1}$ 수준에서도 사망률, 일반 증상, 체중 변화 등에 이상을 보이지 않았으며, 부검 후 흉강 및 복강의 모든 장기에 대한 육안적 부검 소견 등에서도 아무런 독성학적 변화가 유발되지 않음을 알 수 있었다.