Effect of some herbal drinks on the mutagenicity of nitrite treated menstrual regulatory and haematinic traditional preparations using Ames test

Abstract

Two menstrual regulatory and haematinic traditional preparations, interacted with nitrite in an acidic circumstance (pH 3-3.5) at 37℃ for 4 h, showed their mutagenicity towards Salmonella typhimurium TA98 and TA100 of Ames test without activating system. Attempt to show that herbal drinks prepared from six herbs, namely Hibiscus sabdariffa Linn., Chrysanthemum morifolium Hemsl., Carthamus tinctorius Linn., Morns alba Linn., Aegle marmelos (Linn.) Corr., and Centella asiatica (Linn.) Urban could inhibit the mutagenicity of the nitrite treated drug was performed. It was found that the herbal drinks did not inhibit the mutagenicity of nitrite treated drugs. Moreover, four of six herbal drinks prepared from Chrysanthemum morifolium Hemsl., Carthamus tinctorius Linn., Aegle marmelos (Linn.) Corn, and Centella asiatica (Linn.) Urban enhanced the mutagenicity of the treated drugs. Higher mutagenicity enhancing effect of the herbal drinks were found on nitrite treated drug number 2 than on drug number 1 and it was more prominent on Salmonella typhimurium TA98 than on TA100. A possible hypothesis to explain why the number of revertants of both strains induced by nitrite treated drugs was increased may be due to some reductants in the herbal drinks. Furthermore, the enzyme inducing of herbs, namely, nitroreductase and O-acetyltransferase in Salmonella typhimurium of Ames test that are believed to play a role in mutagenesis of positive standard should be investigated. The results presented here suggested that daily consumption of herbal drinks could not reduce the risk of the stomach cancer from nitrite treated these drugs. Thus, avoiding consumption of nitrite containing foods should be better way to prevent gastric cancer.