The non-cytotoxicity characterization of rebaudioside A as a food additive

To evaluate the cytotoxicity of high-purity rebaudioside A (reb A, 99.16%) as a food ingredient, a combination of several methods, including tetrazolium-based colorimetric assay (MTT), lactate dehydrogenase assay (LDH), enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), real-time PCR (qPCR), high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), and two-dimensional electrophoresis (2-DE) were used to test the cytotoxicity of reb A on the human cells HT-29 and T84, as well as liver and spleen cells from mice. The results indicated that no obvious changes in cellular viability, inflammatory cytokines yield, or protein yield were observed between the test group and the control group when different concentrations of reb A were used, suggesting that reb A is non-cytotoxic in vitro at the concentrations range tested (0.001–0.5%).