Effect of Siamese cassia leaves on the activities of chemical carcinogen metabolizing enzymes and on mammary gland carcinogenesis in the rat.

Male Wistar rats were fed AIN-76 semipurified diet or diet containing 5% ground lyophilized Siamese cassia leaves for 2 weeks before sacrifice. Hepatic S9 fractions were prepared and assayed for the level of cytochrome P450 (P450), the activities of monooxygenase, i.e., aniline hydroxylase (ANH), aminopyrine-N-demethylase (AMD) as well as the capacity to metabolically activate the mutagenicities of aflatoxin B(1) (AFB(1)) and benzo(a)pyrene (B(a)P). In addition, the activities of detoxificating enzymes such as glutathione-S-transferase (GST) and UDP-glucuronyltransferase (UGT) were also measured. It was found that feeding of Siamese cassia leaves significantly reduced the activities of hepatic ANH and AMD as well as the capacity to activate the mutagenicity of AFB(1) towards Salmonella typhimurium TA100, being 31, 73 and 41% of control group, respectively. It also slightly decreased, but not significantly, the capacity to activate the mutagenicity of B(a)P towards S. typhimurium YG1029. On the other hand, however, the activities of both GST and UGT were markedly increased in those animals, being 250 and 220% of control animals. The anticarcinogenic potential of Siamese cassia leaves was also investigated in female Sprague Dawley rats treated with 9,10-dimethyl-1,2-benzanthracene (DMBA). The animals were fed control diet or diet containing ground lyophilized Siamese cassia leaves 2 weeks prior to and 1 week after intragastrically administration of DMBA, and then they were placed on a pellet diet for additional 25 weeks. Interestingly, it was found that feeding of diet containing 2.5 and 4% Siamese cassia leaves resulted in a significant decrease in the multiplicity of mammary gland tumors as well as a slight delay of the onset of tumor development. The incidence of tumors in the group fed 4% Siamese cassia leaves, but not in the 2.5% group, was lowered, although not significantly, than that of control group. The results in the present study therefore demonstrated that Siamese cassia leaves possess phase II enzyme inducing property as well as the ability to reduce some phase I enzyme activities in rat liver. This Thai vegetable also exhibit cancer chemopreventive potential, at least against DMBA-induced mammary gland carcinogenesis which may be partly due to phase II inducing capacity as well as phase I inhibitory activity.

Antimutagenic and anticarcinogenic potentials of some Thai vegetables.

Fifteen kinds of commonly consumed Thai vegetables were sequentially extracted with hexane, chloroform and methanol, and then tested for antimutagenic activities against direct-acting (AF-2 and NaN3) and indirect-acting (AFB1 and B(a)P) mutagens using Ames' Salmonella mutagenicity test with Salmonella typhimurium TA100 as tester strain. It was found that only the methanol extract of neem leaves contain weak antimutagen inhibiting the mutagenicities of both direct-acting mutagens. Interestingly, all vegetables studied were found to contain chemical compounds, mainly nonpolar ones, capable of inhibiting the mutagenicity of AFB1, while only some vegetables contain chemical compounds capable of inhibiting the mutagenicity of B(a)P, which is also an indirect-acting mutagen. Studies on anticarcinogenic potentials demonstrated that Thai bitter gourd fruits, but not sweet basil leaves, at the concentration of 6.25% and 12.5% in the diet, partially inhibited DMBA-induced mammary gland carcinogenesis in female Sprague-Dawley rats when fed to the animals 2 weeks prior to DMBA. Results in the present study therefore demonstrated that most Thai vegetables contain antimutagens inhibiting the mutagenicity of some indirect-acting mutagen, particularly AFB1. The mechanism of their antimutagenicity may probably be the inhibition of the activity of metabolic-activating enzymes in rat liver homogenates. Very interestingly, our results clearly reveal that Thai bitter gourd fruits, which possess Phase II enzymes inducing property, as well as the ability to reduce Phase I enzyme activities in rat liver, contain some anticarcinogens or chemopreventive agents. However, sweet basil leaves that possess both Phase I and Phase II enzyme-inducing properties may not contain any anticarcinogen, at least against DMBA-induced mammary gland carcinogenesis.

Effect of varying the onset of exposure to DDT on its modulation of AFB1-induced hepatocarcinogenesis in the rat.

We have previously reported that p,p'-dichlorodiphenyl-trichloroethane (DDT) inhibited the hepatocarcinogenicity of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) if given to rats 1 week prior to AFB1 but could enhance the carcinogenesis when given 1 week after the completion of AFB1 treatment. However, simultaneous administration of DDT with AFB1 resulted in a slight reduction in the incidence of liver tumours. In the present experiment in which the dose of AFB1 was reduced to about half of that used previously, we observed that DDT markedly inhibited the hepatocarcinogenesis if given to animals starting at the same time with AFB1. On the other hand, giving DDT to animals starting in the middle of AFB1 treatment resulted in a significant enhancement of hepatocarcinogenesis. DDT exhibited a maximal tumour promoting effect when given either 1 or 3 weeks after completion of AFB1 treatment. It enhanced the number of animals bearing liver carcinomas as well as the number of carcinomas per animal. Determination of gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase in the serum revealed that the activity increased only in animals bearing big and/or a number of carcinomas in the livers especially in those promoted by DDT. These results therefore demonstrated that DDT will act as an inhibitor of AFB1-induced hepatocarcinogenesis if it is given to animals starting either prior to or at the same time as carcinogen. On the other hand, it will act as a tumour promoter if given to animals starting either in the middle of or after the completion of AFB1 treatment.

Carcinogenicity of an oxidation product of p-phenylenediamine.

para-Phenylenediamine (p-PD), a widely used aromatic amine in the preparation of commercial oxidative-type hair dyes, has been previously demonstrated to have neither mutagenic activity to Salmonella typhimurium nor carcinogenic activity in rats and mice. In this study, the mutagenicity of p-PD after an oxidation by hydrogen peroxide towards S. typhimurium TA98 and its carcinogenicity in Wistar rats were examined both by topical application to the shaved skin and by s.c. injection. The oxidation product was found to be strongly mutagenic to the bacterial tester strain in the presence of rat liver S-9 fraction. Interestingly, in female rats, both topical application and s.c. injection for 18 months of oxidized p-PD could induce a statistically significant incidence of mammary gland tumors (greater than 50%, P less than 0.05). In addition, uterine tumors and soft tissue tumors of both malignant and benign types were also significantly induced (43% and 57%, P less than 0.05) in the s.c. injection group. On the other hand, tumors of mammary gland and soft tissue were not observed in male rats under similar experimental conditions. However, tumors of other organs including liver, kidney, adrenal gland, thyroid gland, urinary bladder and lung were occasionally observed in male rats of both groups and might be related to the p-PD treatment.