Toxic and mutagenic properties of extracts from Tunisian traditional medicinal plants investigated by the neutral red uptake, VITOTOX and alkaline comet assays

We investigated the genotoxic properties of a number of extracts from Tunisian traditional medicinal plants with the bacterial VITOTOX test in Salmonella typhimurium and the alkaline comet assay in human C3A cells. Ethyl acetate and methanol extracts from Marrubium alysson L. and Retama raetam (Fors...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:South African journal of botany 2011-08, Vol.77 (3), p.703-710
Main Authors: Edziri, H., Mastouri, M., Mahjoub, A., Anthonissen, R., Mertens, B., Cammaerts, S., Gevaert, L., Verschaeve, L.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Benzo(a)pyrene
Comet assay
Comet test
DNA damage
Ethyl acetate
Genotoxicity
Marrubium
Marrubium alysson L
Medicinal plants
Methanol
mutagenicity
Mutagens
NRU test
Peganum harmala
Peganum harmala L
Retama raetam
Retama raetam (Forsk.) Webb
Salmonella typhimurium
Toxicity
Tunisian medicinal plants
VITOTOX test
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:We investigated the genotoxic properties of a number of extracts from Tunisian traditional medicinal plants with the bacterial VITOTOX test in Salmonella typhimurium and the alkaline comet assay in human C3A cells. Ethyl acetate and methanol extracts from Marrubium alysson L. and Retama raetam (Forsk.) Webb and methanol extracts from Peganum harmala L. were investigated. Toxicity was furthermore studied with the neutral red uptake test that served for dose-finding. All extracts showed antigenotoxic properties against 4-nitroquinoline-oxide (4-NQO) and benzo(α)pyrene in the VITOTOX test, except the methanol extracts from R. raetam where antigenotoxicity was not found against the mutagen 4-NQO (in the absence of S9). The ethyl acetate extract from R. raetam was found mutagenic with the VITOTOX test in the absence of S9, whereas both ethylacetate and methanol extracts of M. alysson L. induced DNA damage according to the alkaline comet assay in C3A cells. ► We investigated the genotoxic properties of some extracts from Tunisian medicinal plants. ► We investigated Marrubium alsysson, Retama raetam and Peganum harmala. ► Ethylacetate extracts of Retama raetam were mutagenic according to the VITOTOX test. ► All extracts of Marrubium alysson induced DNA damage as shown by the comet assay. ► All extracts have to some extent also antigenotoxic properties.
ISSN:0254-6299
1727-9321
DOI:10.1016/j.sajb.2011.03.007