Summary of the Safety Assessment Data of the Most Common Organogermanium Food Ingredient, Asaigermanium (Poly‐ trans ‐[(2‐carboxyethyl)germasesquioxane])

Asaigermanium is a water‐soluble organogermanium compound created by Kazuhiko Asai and colleagues in 1967. It was first researched and developed decades ago as a pharmaceutical product, but it is now used as a raw material for food supplements and cosmetics. After more than 50 years of research and development, the physiological activities of Asaigermanium have been investigated, and the effects of Asaigermanium have been evaluated in multiple toxicological studies. However, because of the health hazards of inorganic germanium (germanium dioxide and lactic acid/citric acid–germanium, also known as the germanium–citrate–lactate complex), there have been false reports that all organogermanium compounds may be as harmful to health as inorganic germanium is. Therefore, in this review, in addition to providing an outline of the test data that have verified the safety of Asaigermanium thus far, we introduce the results from many recent toxicological studies. In addition, we describe the registered certification of Asaigermanium in the In‐House Safety Association of Health Foods of the Japan Health and Nutrition Food Association, which is a third‐party registration framework for the voluntary safety inspection of health food ingredients in Japan.