The Efficacy Evaluation of Tourmaline-Ionized Water in Animal Study

ABSTRACT This study was performed using animals to confirm the effect of tourmaline-ionized water(TIW) the properties of whichwere changed by tourmaline energy and electric discharge. In the ICR mice fed high-fat diet, body weight increasing rateof the TIW-treated group (Exp) was generally decreased and moreover exhibited significance at 11th week ( P ⁄0.05)compared with the control(Con) group fed distilled water, although water intake of the Exp group was lower than that ofthe Con group. In the ICR mice with CCl 4 -induced hepatotoxicity, AST and ALT activities of the Exp group were notsignificant but showed some decreasing trend, and histological damage of liver was less compared with thatof the Congroup. On the study of ethanol-induced hangovers in Sprague-Dawley rat, blood alcohol concentration was significantlydecreased( P ⁄0.01), activity of GST, antioxidant enzyme related to the alcohol metabolism, was increased in liver tissue( P ⁄0.05), and AST and ALT show a tendency to be decreasedin the Exp group. These results suggest that drinking TIWhas not only some obesity preventing effect but also an alcohol detoxification effect and liver protecting effect in vivo. Itis supposed due to a structural change of water cluster and a property which maintains the changed structure through tour-maline energy and electric discharge. Therefore, TIW has a potentiality to be developed as functional water with severalbeneficial effects as well as for daily drinking, but further study on the mechanism related with efficacy will be necessary.Keywords : Tourmaline-ionized water, Liver-protecting, Hangover, Obesity