Safety Evaluation of the Natural Eggshell Membrane ingredient, NEM®, found in JOINThealth products published in Food and Chemical Toxicology

The clinically proven Natural Eggshell Membrane ingredient, NEM®, found in Membrell’s JOINThealth products has had its safety manuscript published in the journal Food and Chemical Toxicology.  The manuscript entitled “Safety evaluation of a natural eggshell membrane-derived product” has been published online ahead of print, (http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.fct.2011.12.036).  This research evaluated NEM’s safety via multiple in vitro and in vivotoxicological studies.

The NEM® safety and toxicology studies were conducted by a variety of independent research labs.  NEM® was evaluated for cytotoxicity, genotoxicity and oral toxicity (both single acute dose and 90-day repeated-dose) at doses up to fifty times the clinically tested human equivalent dose.  NEM® did not show any signs of toxicity in any of the areas that were evaluated.  These results demonstrate that NEM® is extremely safe for human consumption at the standard daily dose of 500mg per day, as well as elevated levels of NEM®.

NEM® contains naturally occurring glycosaminoglycans and proteins essential for maintaining healthy joint and connective tissues.  Previous published clinical research on NEM® showed an improvement in joint comfort and flexibility in just 7 to 10 days with only 500mg per day.

ABSTRACT:

Natural Eggshell Membrane (NEM®) is a novel dietary ingredient that contains naturally occurring glycosaminoglycans and proteins essential for maintaining healthy joint and connective tissues. NEM® was evaluated for safety via in vitro and in vivo toxicological studies. This included testing for cytotoxicity, genotoxicity, acute oral toxicity, and 90-day repeated-dose oral toxicity. NEM® did not exhibit any cytotoxic effects at a dose of 100 μg in an in vitro human cell viability assay after incubation for up to 20 h. NEM® did not exhibit any genotoxic effects in an in vitro assay of four strains of histidine-dependent Salmonella typhimurium and one strain of tryptophan-dependent Escherichia coli at a dose of up to 5000 μg/plate. NEM® did not exhibit any signs of acute toxicity in rats at a single oral dose of up to 2000 mg/kg body weight, nor signs of toxicity (via urinalysis, hematology, clinical chemistry, or histopathological evaluation) in rats at a repeated oral dose of up to 2000 mg/kg body weight per day for 90 days. The results of these studies suggest that NEM® may be safe for human consumption.