Perilla frutescens: A new strategy for uranium decorporation

Radionuclide uranium is a great threat to human health, due to its high chemical toxicity and radioactivity. Finding suitable uranium decorporation to reduce damage caused by uranium internal contamination is an important aspect of nuclear emergency response. However, the poor selectivity and/or high toxicity of the only excretory promoter approved by Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is an obvious disadvantage. Herein, we choose an edible natural product, the traditional Chinese medicine called Perilla frutescens (PF), which has wide sources and can be used as an excellent and effective uranyl decorporation. In vivo uranium decorporation assays illustrate the removal efficiency of uranium in kidney were 68.87% and 43.26%, in femur were 56.66% and 54.53%, by the test of prophylactic and immediate administration, respectively. Cell level experiments confirmed that it had better biocompatibility than CaNa₃-DTPA (CaNa₃-diethylenetriamine pentaacetate, a commercial actinide excretion agent). In vitro static adsorption experiments exhibited that its excellent selectivity sorption for uranyl. All those results findings would provide new research insights about natural product for uranyl decorporation.