Could herbal soup be a potentially unrecognized cause of hepatotoxicity at autopsy?

Autor: Britza SM; Adelaide Medical School, The University of Adelaide, Level 2 Helen Mayo North Building, Frome Road, Adelaide, SA, 5005, Australia., Farrington R; Adelaide Medical School, The University of Adelaide, Level 2 Helen Mayo North Building, Frome Road, Adelaide, SA, 5005, Australia., Musgrave IF; Adelaide Medical School, The University of Adelaide, Level 2 Helen Mayo North Building, Frome Road, Adelaide, SA, 5005, Australia., Aboltins C; Department of Infectious Diseases, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, 3010, Australia., Byard RW; Adelaide Medical School, The University of Adelaide, Level 2 Helen Mayo North Building, Frome Road, Adelaide, SA, 5005, Australia. roger.byard@sa.gov.au.; Forensic Science South Australia, Adelaide, SA, 5000, Australia. roger.byard@sa.gov.au.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Forensic science, medicine, and pathology [Forensic Sci Med Pathol] 2022 Dec; Vol. 18 (4), pp. 403-406. Date of Electronic Publication: 2022 Jun 24.
DOI: 10.1007/s12024-022-00490-5
Abstrakt: Unexpected hepatic failure with liver necrosis is sometimes encountered during a forensic autopsy. Determining the etiology may sometimes be difficult, although increasingly herbal medicines are being implicated. To determine whether such effects might also be caused by foodstuffs, the following in vitro study was undertaken. Four formulations of traditional herbal soup advertised as bak kut teh were prepared and added to cultures of liver carcinoma cells (HepG2). Cell viability was assessed using an MTT colorimetric assay at 48 h demonstrating that all formulations had significant toxicity prior to dilution (p < 0.05). Formulation #1 showed 21% cell death (p = 0.023), Formulation #2 30% (p = 0.009), and Formulation #3 41% (p < 0.0001). Formulations #1-3 showed no significant toxicity once diluted (p > 0.05). Formulation 4 showed approximately 83% cell death before dilution (p < 0.0001) and persistent toxicity even with dilutions at 1:10 (15% ± 3.7, p = 0.023) and 1:1000 (14% ± 3.8, p = 0.024). This study has shown that herbal foodstuffs such as bak kut teh may be responsible for variable degrees of in vitro hepatotoxicity, thus extending the range of herbal products that may be potentially injurious to the liver. If unexpected liver damage is encountered at autopsy, information on possible recent ingestion of herbal food preparations should be sought, as routine toxicology screening will not identify the active components. Liver damage may therefore be caused not only by herbal medicines but possibly by herbal products contained in food.
(© 2022. The Author(s).)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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