A twenty eight-day repeated dose toxicity study of black soybean extract in Sprague-Dawley rats.

This study was designed to evaluate any adverse effect of a hot water extract of black soybeans (Glycine max (L.) Merr.), when administered to both sexes of Crj:CD(SD)IGS rats at dietary levels of 0 (control), 0.5, 1.5 and 5.0% (6 rats/sex/group). During the study, the treatment had no adverse effects on clinical signs, survival, body weights, and food and water consumption, or on findings of ophthalmology, urinalysis, hematology, or blood biochemistry. Organ weights, gross pathology and histopathology exhibited no differences of toxicological significance between control and treated rats. Thus, the no-observed-adverse-effect level (NOAEL) of black soybean extract was concluded to be 5.0% (3,618 mg/kg body weight/day for males and 4,066 mg/kg body weight/day for females) from the present study.