Monosodium glutamate: Review on clinical reports

Abstract

Monosodium glutamate is made up of nutritionally indispensable amino acids and used as flavour enhancer worldwide. Monosodium glutamate is believed to be associated with different health problems. This study is aimed to shed light on the available literature from last 25 years about different clinical trials which had been carried out on animal and human models regarding possible effects of monosodium glutamate. Google scholar, NCBI, PUBMED, EMBASE, Wangfang databases, and Web of Science databases were used to retrieve the available studies. Literature showed that monosodium glutamate was associated with adverse side-effects particularly in animals including induction of obesity, diabetes, hepatotoxic, neurotoxic and genotoxic effects. Different reports revealed increased hunger, food intake, and obesity in human subjects. Limited studies have been carried out on humans to check possible hepatotoxic, neurotoxic, and genotoxic effects of monosodium glutamate. Available literature showed that increased consumption of monosodium glutamate may be associated with harmful health effects. So, it is recommended to use common salt instead of it. Furthermore, intensive research is required to explore monosodium glutamate–related molecular and metabolic mechanisms.