Jul 30 2010 --- Stratum Nutrition has announced that the safety and toxicology report on their novel fiber, ARTINIA, a branded chitin-glucan ingredient, has been published online in the journal Food and Chemical Toxicology.  The lead author of the study was Dr. Diana Jonker (TNO Quality of Life, The Netherlands), who collaborated with Drs. Véronique Maquet and Sandrine Gautier of KitoZyme (Herstal, Belgium), the commercialization partner of Stratum Nutrition. Previous research has shown that ARTINIA has beneficial effects on cardiovascular health, including the reduction of arterial plaque formation in hamsters fed an atherogenic diet.

This new study, entitled Subchronic (13-week) oral toxicity study in rats with fungal chitin-glucan from Aspergillus niger , was conducted to assess the safety and  toxicity of chitin-glucan (ARTINIA brand) to support its use in humans as a dietary supplement and food ingredient. 

Chitin-glucan was fed to healthy Wistar rats at dietary levels of 0, 1, 5 and 10% for 13 weeks. Clinical and neurobehavioural observations, growth, feed and water consumption, ophthalmoscopy, hematology, clinical chemistry, urinalysis, organ weights, necropsy and histopathological examination revealed no adverse effects of chitin- glucan.  ARTINIA is an insoluble biopolymer, composed of chitin and beta-(1,3)-d-glucan, that is a component of the fungal cell wall.  In conclusion, feeding chitin-glucan at dietary levels up to 10% for 13 weeks was tolerated without any signs of toxicity.