Response to comment on “A review of public and environmental consequences of organic germanium”

Abstract

The main criticism of Filella (2022) against us is that we confuse the types of organic germanium and the lack of a clear definition and discussion of organic germanium. Earlier in the discussion about the application of organic germanium, there were concerns about the types of organic germanium (Goodman, 1988; Kaplan et al., 2004; Yu et al., 2005). These reviews generally agree that the classification of organic germanium and their compounds is complex and currently they are all just collectively referred to as organic germanium (Yamaguchi et al., 2015). At this circumstance, it is very difficult to present clear description about “organic germanium,” and Filella (2022) also did not present clear information about what the term “organic germanium” means in the comments. However, to clarify the definition of organic germanium, we divide organic germanium into three main categories: synthetic organic germanium; natural organic germanium; and bioorganic germanium (Narokha et al., 2022). Synthetic organic germanium is hydroxyethyl germanium sesquioxides, i.e. Ge-132, spiro germanium, furan germanium derivatives, and other types of antiviral, anti-inflammatory, and anticancer organic germanium, which are compounds with a wide range of pharmacological effects, but are easy to cause calcium deficiency when taken in excess; natural organic germanium is extracted from natural plants or consumed directly without any toxic side effects on the human body; bio-organic germanium is germanium compounds implanted in living organisms such as yeast, bacteria macrofungi, and vegetables. Possible mechanisms of tumor suppressing activity of organogermanium compounds include several aspects such as enhancement of body immunity, scavenging of free radicals, and antimutagenesis. In many biologically active molecules of organogermanium compounds, the germanium atoms are usually coordinated to strongly electronegative atoms such as oxygen, sulfur, and nitrogen, which due to their electron absorption cause the electron cloud around the germanium atom to deviate from the nucleus and form a positively charged center. Filella (2022) stated that we mix all types of possible “organic germanium.” In this part, we proposed many content about We Ge-132 and spirogermanium, because these two types of organic germanium are the most studied types of organic germanium and also the most promising organic germanium for applications, while other organic germanium are almost uncommon with no precise conclusions (Pr onai & Arimori, 1992). Therefore, Filella (2022)’s concern is superfluous.