Safety examination of some edible plants, Part 2.

The carcinogenicity of cacalia, dandelion, ostrich-fern, and aralia, which are wild plants used as human food or folk medicine, and of burdock, bambooshoots, and lotus, which are cultivated as vegetables in Japan, was examined in an inbred strain ACI rats. Fresh plant materials were dried, milled, and mixed with the rat basal diet in the ratio of 4--33% of the total. These diets thus prepared were administered to rats for periods ranging upward from 120 days. However, carcinogenic activity was not observed in any of the plants so far tried.