Introduction:

Natural products with pharmacological activity require preclinical evaluations to justify their uses scientifically. The pyrogen assay is a safety pharmacology test performed to determine the presence of endotoxins and it is a valuable method to demonstrate the bio-derivative products safety and their prebiotic potential in the field of immunonutrition.

Objective:

To evaluate the pyrogenicity of fungal bioproducts from Pleurotus ostreatus (aqueous extracts from mycelium and fruiting bodies) and a biopreparation from Kluyveromyces marxianus yeast, using a pyrogen assay in New Zealand rabbits.

Method:

Concentrations of 1.0 and 10.0 mg/mL of each sample were tested intravenously at doses of 0.5 and 5.0 mg/kg body weight. The experimental design complied with good laboratory practices as established by the International Council for Laboratory Animal Science and was carried out according to the standard work procedures of the Centro de Toxicología y Biomedicina, Santiago de Cuba.

Results:

Pleurotus ostreatus extracts and the yeast biopreparation (0.5 mg/kg) showed no signs of pyrogenicity. In the biopreparation results (5.0 mg/kg), temperature values fall in the uncertainty range according to the United States Pharmacopoeia (USP), and therefore it was suggested to repeat the study.

Conclusions:

Pleurotus ostreatus extracts and Kluyveromyces marxianus biopreparation (0.5 mg/kg) did not induce a significant temperature increase in the animals, thereby suggesting that there are no endotoxin levels in such bioproducts that could cause pyrogenicity.

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