Young Sig Park

Furan in Commercially Processed Foods: Four-Year Field Monitoring and Risk Assessment Study in Korea

The aim of this study was to monitor and assess the risk associated with the presence of furan in various food products consumed in Korea. An optimized analytical method was used for the analysis of furan levels. The optimized solid-phase microextraction (SPME) fiber exposure conditions as follows for temperature, time, and amount of sample were 50°C, 20 min, and 5 g (ml), respectively. Furan was detected in all food samples tested, at levels ranging from 0.4 ng/g in canned crab to 814 ng/g in ground roasted coffee powder. The furan levels in coffee, canned fish, canned meats, sauce, soup, retort, canned vegetables, baby foods, nutritional/diet drinks, confectionary and biscuits and snacks, juice, jams, and canned fruit were (ng/g) 169, 56.1, 30.1, 21.1, 18.1, 15.6, 10.9, 10.6, 7.1, 5.4, 3.7, 3.2, and 2.9, respectively. Furan concentrations in baby food products were between 1 and 102.5 ng/g. The total exposure estimate of furan was determined to be 10.6 ng/kg/d (maximum, 20 ng/kg/d) for adults, and 17.4 ng/kg/d (maximum. 84.9 ng/kg/d) for babies. Exposure estimates found in this study are lower than those prescribed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Correlation of urinary furan with plasma γ-glutamyltranspeptidase levels in healthy men and women

Furan is a colorless, volatile compound that is found in heat-treated foods, such as canned and jarred foods, at levels up to 100 ppb. When animals ingest high doses, furan metabolites, such as cis-2-butene-1,4-dial, cause severe hepatotoxicity and carcinogenicity. However, the levels and effects of furan on humans are not known. Therefore, we measured urinary furan in 100 healthy individuals consumed normal diet (49 men, 51 women) using solid phase micro-extraction-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (SPME-GCMS). Urinary furan was detected in 56 subjects (31 males, 25 females) and ranged up to 3.14 ppb. In individuals with detectable urinary furan, the level of gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase (gamma-GT), a marker for liver damage, was strongly correlated with the urinary furan concentration (r=0.56, p<0.0001). Linear regression analysis indicated that the urinary furan level was significantly associated with gamma-GT in both univariate (p<0.0001) and multiple (p=0.0001) models including age, sex, body weight, and blood pressure as covariates. To our knowledge, this is the first study to measure detectable levels of furan in human urine. These levels of urinary furan, which may be dietary origin, could be hepatotoxic in humans; therefore; the metabolic fates and potential toxicity of dietary furan in humans should be investigated further.

Anti-diabetic effect of magnesium salt extracts from deep-sea water in C57BLKS/J-db/db mice

AbstractRecently, the incidence of diabetes has increased steadily worldwide. Type 2 diabetes constitutes about 90% of all cases of diabetes, and it is associated with many complications. Currently, the drugs for therapy of type 2 diabetes are considerably limited owing to disadvantages such as side effects and high rate of secondary failure. To overcome these problems, it is necessary to develop effective therapeutic agents from safe natural products. Deep-sea water (DSW) is abundant in minerals such as potassium (K), calcium (Ca), and magnesium (Mg). Mg supplements are known for their usefulness in the treatment of type 2 diabetes. In this study, we examined the anti-diabetic effect of Mg salt extracts from DSW in a diabetic mouse model. We observed that the groups treated with Mg salt extract showed better response toward fasting blood glucose level and oral glucose tolerance test when compared to the positive control. Overall, the Mg salt extract improved the symptoms of impaired fasting glucose and glucose tolerance, suggesting that it can be used as an effective agent for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus.