Long-term toxicity study of quillaia extract in mice

Groups of 48 male and 48 female mice were fed quillaia extract in the diet at levels of 0 (control), 0·1, 0·5 or 1·5% for 84 wk. The material had no adverse effect on the death rate or the incidence of histopathological findings, including tumours. However, there was a lower rate of body-weight gain at the 1·5% dietary level, and there were isolated statistically significant differences between the treated and control animals, mainly at the 1·5% dietary level, in the haematological examinations and in some absolute and relative organ weights of both sexes. It is concluded that, in mice, quillaia extract fed at levels up to 1·5% in the diet (approximately 2·2g/kg/day) did not exert a carcinogenic effect. The no-untoward-effect level from this study is considered to be 0·5% in the diet, giving an intake of approximately 0·7 g quillaia extract/kg/day.