Evaluation of cytotoxicity and genotoxicity of some Philippine medicinal plants.

The genotoxicity and toxicity of ethnomedicinal Philippine plants, which include Cassia fistula, Derris elliptica, Ficus elastica, Gliciridia sepium, Michelia alba, Morus alba, Pogostemon cablin and Ricinus communis, were tested using the Vitotox assay. The plants are used traditionally to treat several disorders like diabetes, weakness, menorrhagia, headache, toothache and rheumatism. The dried leaves were homogenized for overnight soaking in methanol at room temperature. The resulting alcoholic extracts were filtered and concentrated in vacuo and tested for their genotoxicity and cytotoxicity using Vitotox®. Results showed that the medicinal plants that were tested are not genotoxic nor cytotoxic, except for R. communis and P. cablin, which showed toxicity at high doses (low dilutions) in the absence of S9.

Genotoxicity investigation of ELF-magnetic fields in Salmonella typhimurium with the sensitive SOS-based VITOTOX test.

We performed a genotoxicity investigation of extremely low-frequency (ELF) magnetic fields (MFs, 50 Hz, 100 and 500 µT, 1 and 2 h exposure) alone and in combination with known chemical mutagens using the VITOTOX test. This test is a very sensitive reporter assay of Salmonella typhimurium bacteria based on the SOS response. Our study showed that ELF-MFs do not induce SOS-based mutagenicity in S. typhimurium bacteria and do not show any synergetic effect when combined with chemical mutagens.

Genotoxicity evaluation of two kinds of smoke-water and 3,7-dimethyl-2H-furo[2,3-c]pyran-2-one.

Smoke, smoke-water and aerosols have a stimulatory effect on seed germination and growth vigour of many seedlings, making them potentially useful for different purposes, provided they do not pose a health risk. Therefore, the genotoxicity of two kinds of smoke-water and 3,7-dimethyl-2H-furo[2,3-c]pyran-2-one, a variant of the most active smoke compound (3-methyl-2H-furo[2,3-c]pyran-2-one) was evaluated using the Vitotox assay. Smoke-water extracts were obtained from burning leaves: Themeda triandra (smoke-water Tt) and a mix of Themeda triandra and Passerina vulgaris (smoke-water Kb). No genotoxic effect was observed for any of the three samples. However, the three samples are toxic at the highest concentrations (3,7-dimethyl-2H-furo[2,3-c]pyran-2-one, 2 ppm; smoke-water Tt, dilutions 1 : 1, 1 : 2, 1 : 4; smoke-water Kb, dilution 1 : 1) without addition of S9 mix. Both the butenolide 3,7-dimethyl-2H-furo[2,3-c]pyran-2-one and smoke-water Tt are also toxic at high doses in the presence of S9 (2 ppm and dilutions 1 : 1 and 1 : 2, respectively), but not smoke-water Kb. Thus, from these results, no genotoxicity of these three samples can be assumed, which is accordance with the previous tests performed with 3-methyl-2H-furo[2,3-c]pyran-2-one and a smoke-water.