Silicon Rich Mineral Water Biological Activity Research

Silicon (Si) is the most abundant element other than oxygen in the earth crust, and is mostly in the form of silica and silicates in nature. Silicon is present in water and food. Researches had confirmed that the silicon in water is more easily absorbed by the body. Silicon can not only promote embryonic development, but also improve bone mineralization, as well as reduce the possibility of atherosclerosis.The silicon content in the silicon-rich mineral water measured by Inductive Coupled Plasma method is 5650 mg/L. The content is similar to that of 5660 mg/L which was provided by experiment, and the pH is 10.90.The cytotoxicity and acute toxicity test were conduced and the results showed that IC50 values of simvastatin and silicon-rich mineral water were 0.0907mmol/L and 0.1055mmol/L, respectively. The results stated that the toxicity of silicon-rich mineral water was less than that of simvastatin. Within a day,17.4mg of silicon-rich mineral water was orally administrated to 20g of mice. The amount was 40.3 times higher than the normal dose for mice and 363 times higher than the dose for an adult. Under this condition, mice should no abnormalities and there were no deaths. The results shows that silicon-rich mineral water was low toxicity and clinical application was safe and reliable (> 100).In this paper, the hypolipidemic and hepatoprotective effects of silicon-rich mineral water were studied for the first time. In the experiment, Wister rats were used, and the experimental groups were divided into the high fat diet model for the control group, high dose group of silicon-rich mineral water, middle dose group of silicon-rich mineral water, low dose group of silicon-rich mineral water, neutral silicon-rich mineral water group and simvastatin (commercial hypolipidemic drug) performed comparison of the hypolipidemic efficacy. The results of the hypolipidemic and hepatoprotective animal experiments showed that silicon-rich mineral water can reduce concentrations of serum triglyceride (TG) and low-density lipoprotein (LDL-C); silicon-rich mineral water had no effects on concentrations of serum total cholesterol (TC) and high-density lipoprotein (HDL); also, it could reduce L-alanine amino transferase enzyme (ALT) and L-aspartate aminotransferase (AST) to improved the animal’s fatty livers; Pathological examination results showed that the silicon-rich mineral water can significantly improve liver cell degeneration and necrosis. The alkaline (pH=10-11) of silicon-rich mineral water did not significantly affect the rats stomachs; if the alkaline was weakened from pH= 10-11 to 8, the effect may be better.At the same time, the antitumor experiments in vitro of silicon-rich mineral water were studied, according to the statistical analysis, the IC50 value of human gastric cancer SGC-7901 cell line, human gastric cancer BGC-823 cell line, human colorectal cancer HCT-8 cell lines and human hepatoma HepG2 cell line were 1000μg/mL,620μg/mL,650μg/mL and 740μg/mL, respectively. The results showed that the silicon-rich mineral water could inhibit the added value of different tumor cells, and had definite specificity for cancer cells.