Effects of oral acute administration and subchronic feeding of several levels of D-psicose in rats.

The effects of oral acute administration and subchronic (34 d) feeding of several levels of D-psicose, a C3-epimer of D-fructose, were studied in rats. In the acute administration test, five groups of eight male Wistar rats (3 wk old) were orally given D-psicose in doses of 8, 11, 14, 17, and 20 g/kg. Three rats receiving 14 g/kg, three rats receiving 17 g/kg and eight rats receiving 20 g/kg of D-psicose died within 2 d after administration. The calculated LD50 values were 16.3 g/kg by the Behrens-Karber method and 15.8 g/kg by the Litchfield-Wilcoxon method. In the subcronic feeding test, eight groups of seven male Wistar rats (3 wk old) were fed diets containing 0 (control), 10, 20, 30, and 40% for 34 d. One rat fed 30% D-psicose diet and five rats fed 40% D-psicose diet died during the experimental period. Body weight gain, food intake and food efficiency were more extensively suppressed by the higher D-psicose diets. The weights of heart, spleen and abdominal adipose tissue were smaller in the order of dietary D-psicose concentration. Cecal weight increased with increasing D-psicose concentration in the diets. Cecal hypertrophy was observed in rats fed 10-40% D-psicose diets. These results suggest that D-psicose differs in nutritional characteristics from D-glucose or D-fructose. The feeding of diets extremely high in D-psicose seems to be harmful to the intestinal tract.