Saccharin preparations commonly distributed as artificial sweeteners exhibited mutagenic activity in bacterial tests. When administered orally to mice, mutagenic activity was demonstrable in the urines of these animals as well as in a host-mediated assay. Highly purified saccharin was not mutagenic in the direct assay, but the urines of mice to which this material had been administered exhibited mutagenic effects on one tester strain (Salmonella typhimurium TA100). Two other sweeteners, neohesperidin dihydrochalcone and xylitol, had no detectable mutagenic activity in any of these assays using his- Salmonella typhimurium strains TA100 or TA98.

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Mandelonitrile beta-glucuronide, the compound patented as Laetrile, has been synthesized from rabbit liver uridine diphosphate-glucuronosyl transferase immobilized on beaded sepharose, has been analyzed by thin-layer chromatography, nuclear magnetic resonance, and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, and has been tested for cytotoxicity and mutagenic activity with Salmonella typhimurium strains TA 98 and TA 100. Several commercial laetrile preparations contained no glucuronide; they contained amygdalin and neoamygdalin instead. Mandelonitrile, mandelonitrile glucuronide, and a mixture of amygdalin and neoamygdalin were each found to be mutagenic.

A procedure to enhance the schistosomicidal effectiveness in vivo of an isothiocyanate derivative and some of its antischistosomal properties are reported. Determinations of the effects of this compound on tissue thiol levels and on highly sensitivity bacterial tester strains have indicated that its mutagenic potential is of a low order and that the latter is decreased further after reduction of the host's intestinal bacterial flora.