Abstract

Aim of this study

Corn silk is a traditional herbal medicine in China, which has been used in
many parts of the world for the treatment of edema as well as for cystitis, gout,
kidney stones, nephritis, prostatitis and similar ailments. However, there is
little scientific evidence about its safety. As a part of its safety assessment, a
subchronic toxicity was performed in this paper.

Methods
The subchronic toxicity was investigated in male and female Wistar rats by
dietary administration at concentrations of 0.5%, 2.0% and 8.0% (w/w) for 90
days. Overall health, body weight, food consumption, hematology, blood
chemistry, organ weights, gross and microscopic appearance of tissues were
compared between test and control groups.

Results
A number of significant differences were seen between groups, but none of
them was considered to be adverse. Based on the present study, the no-
observed-adverse-effect level (NOAEL) of corn silk is at least 8.0% which
corresponds to a mean daily corn silk intake of approximately 9.354 and
10.308 g/day/kg body weight for males and females, respectively.

Conclusion
The results obtained in the present study suggest that consumption of corn
silk has no adverse effects and support the safety of corn silk for humans.

Graphical abstract
Corn silk is a traditional herbal medicine in China, which has been used in
many parts of the world for the treatment of edema as well as for cystitis, gout,
kidney stones, nephritis, prostatitis and similar ailments. The present study
suggested that consumption of corn silk up to 8.0% (corresponds to a mean
daily corn silk intake of approximately 9.354 and 10.308 g/day/kg body
weight for males and females) for 90 days has no adverse effects to Wistar rats
and helped to support the safety of corn silk.

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Introduction
Corn silk, an outer thread-like part of corn, consists of various substances,
including proteins, vitamins, alkaloids, tannins, mineral salts (Namba et al.,
1993), carbohydrates (Tang et al., 1995), steroids (Abdel-Wahab et al., 2002),
and flavonoids (Maksimović and Kovačević, 2003, Liu et al., 2010a). The
bioactivities of corn silk constituents are well reported in the literatures. These
include anti-diabetic activity (Guo et al., 2009) and diuretic activity
(Velazquez et al., 2005) of corn silk aqueous extraction, anti-proliferative
effects on human tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α and lipopolysaccharide
(LPS)-induced cell adhesion by corn silk ethanolic extract (Habtemaram,
1998), antibiotic activity toward corn earworm by a flavone glycoside maysin
(Maksimović and Kovačević, 2003, Widstrom and Snook, 1998), attractant
activity toward corn earworm by volatiles (Cantelo and Jacobson, 1979),
antifungal by furfural and long chain alkanes (Zeringue, 2000, Miller et al.,
2003), inhibition of IgE formation by glycoproteins (Namba et al., 1993),
immune enhancement by nonstarch polysaccharides (Tang et al., 1995),
anticoagulant activity by neutrosugar/aminosugar derivatives (Choi and Choi,
2004), antioxidant activities by polyphenol and terpenoids (Maksimović and
Kovačević, 2003, El-Ghorab et al., 2007, Liu et al., 2010b).

Corn silk has a long history of consumption for therapeutic remedy.

Traditionally, the aqueous extraction has been used to treat patients with
urinary tract disorders due to the high concentration of potassium (British
Herbal Medicine Association, 1992) in many countries like China and Unite
States. Considered to have a soothing diuretic action, corn silk is used for any
irritation of the urinary systerm as dysuria, cystitis, nocturnal enuresis,
prostatitis and gonorrhea. In France, it has been used traditionally to
stimulate weight loss. Nowadays, corn silk also serves as a remedy for heart
trouble, jaundice, malaria, and obesity. Other than these utilization, some
local species are powdered as food additive and flavoring agents in several
regions of the world (Koedam, 1986, Yesilada and Ezer, 1989). For example,
corn silk powder was used as food additive to improve the content and
physical characteristics of beef patties (Wan rosli et al., 2011).
One of the reasons for the increasing interest in herbal medicines is the belief
that, being natural and traditionally used, they are hence safe and harmless.
Nevertheless, their natural origin is not a guarantee of safety; in literature,
many reports point out the risks associated with the use of herbal products
(Chan, 1997, Ernst, 1998, Miller, 1998, Heck et al., 2000, Vaes and Chyka,
2000, Whiting et al., 2002). Also, there are some records about the side effects
of corn silk including allergic reactions, unidentified toxic principle and
stimulating uterine contractions in rabbits. However, detailed studies on
toxicity of corn silk have not yet been reported (Fleming, 2000). Thus, in this
study, the potential adverse effects of long-term consumption of corn silk was
conducted and reported.

Section snippets
Test substance and formulation of diets
Maize plants (variety: Zheng Dan 958) were field grown in Changchun, China,
and were harvested in October 2009. The identification was done by Professor
Jinbo Liu from Laboratory of Nutrition and Functional Food, Jilin University.
Collected corn silk was dried in a shaded and well-ventilated place, shattered
with the help of an omnipotent smasher and sieved to 100 mesh. Then, the
crushed corn silk was added directly to the standard pulverous diet and
thoroughly mixed. All the ingredients were

Nutritional compositions analysis and determinations of

contaminants
The results regarding nutritional compositions of corn silk indicated that it
contained 9.65 ± 0.16% moisture, 3.91 ± 0.11% ash, 0.29 ± 0.07% crude fat,
17.6 ± 0.82% crude protein, 40 ± 0.60% crude fiber, respectively. To evaluate
the microbiological quality of corn silk, bacterial and fungal counts were
measured, and corn silk exhibited low values (Table 1). As regards heavy
metals and pesticide residues, the contents of all the contaminants analyzed
were below the detection limit of the methods applied 

Discussion
Being considered as a by-product in the process of maize grain production, the
corn silk is inexpensive and readily available at a large scale, thus potentially
attractive as a raw material for the pharmaceutical and health food industries.
However, the evidence is still far from proving whether the corn silk posses a
possible danger for human or animal health. The current study was designed
to investigate the subchronic toxicity of corn silk and the results showed a lack
of toxicologically

Conclusions
Given that the effects observed in the 90-day study were not toxic in nature
and no histopathological effects were detected, the no-observed-adverse-
effects level (NOAEL) was estimated to be at least 8.0%, which was the highest
dose tested. Based on these results, the equivalent doses of corn silk intake for
male and female Wistar rats were 9.354 and 10.308 g/kg/day, respectively.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.

Acknowledgement
This work was supported by Jilin Sky-scenery Food Co., Ltd. The authors
thank Jilin province Bureau Quality and Technical Supervision, College of
Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine, Jilin University, and 208 Hospital of
Chinese People's Liberation, for their excellent technical assistance.
Glossary
ALT alanine transaminase
Alb albumin
ALP alkaline phosphatase
ANOVA analysis of variance
ASTaspartate transaminase
BUA blood uric acid
BUN blood urea nitrogen
Glu blood glucose
Bw body weight
CA calcium
Cl chloride
Cr creatinine
EDTA ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid
Glb globulin
GR granulocytes
GC gas chromatograph
HCT hematocrit
HGB hematoglobin
HPLC high performance liquid chromatograph
LSD least squared differences
LY lymphocytes
MCH mean corpuscular hemoglobin
MCHC mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration
MCV mean corpuscular volume
MO
 Journal of Ethnopharmacology
Volume 137, Issue 1, 1 September 2011, Pages 36-43
CuinaWang1 TiehuaZhang1
JunLiu ShuangLu ChengZhang ErleiWang ZuozhaoWang YanZhang
JingboLiu

Laboratory of Nutrition and Functional Food, Jilin University, Xi’an Road 5333#, Changchun
130062, PR China
Received 13 December 2010, Revised 4 March 2011, Accepted 5 March 2011, Available online 11
March 2011.