Anti-oxidative effects of Phellinus linteus and red ginseng extracts on oxidative stress-induced DNA damage.

Anti-oxidative effect of Phellinus linteus (P. linteus) and red ginseng extracts on DNA damage induced by reactive oxygen species (ROS) were investigated in this study. P. linteus (PLE) and red ginseng extracts (RGE) inhibited the breaking of E. coli ColE1 plasmid DNA strands as well as nuclear DNA of rat hepatocytes damaged by oxidative stress. In addition, a reaction mixture of PLE and RGE showed synergistic inhibitory effect against DNA damage. These results suggest that PLE and RGE have a cellular defensive effect against DNA damage induced by ROS.