Mutagenicity of resin acids identified in pulp and paper mill effluents using the salmonella/mammalian‐microsome assay

Abstract

Ten resin acids which have been identified as constituents of pulp and paper mill effluents have been examined for potential mutagenicity in the Salmonella/mammalian-microsome assay. Only neoabietic acid has been found to be mutagenic. Neoabietic acid showed dose-related increases in mutagenicity in strains TA1535, TA100, TA1538, and TA98, but not in strain TA1537. Metabolic activation with a preparation of Aroclor 1254-induced liver homogenate (S9) slightly reduced the mutagenic responses. Negative responses were found for abietic acid, dehydroabietic acid, levopimaric acid, 7-oxodehydroabietic acid, monochlorodehydroabietic acid, dichlorodehydroabietic acid, pimaric acid, isopimaric acid, and sandaracopimaric acid.

Biochemical and Genotoxic Responses of Adult Eel (Anguilla anguillaL.) to Resin Acids and Pulp Mill Effluent: Laboratory and Field Experiments

“…In previous studies, some specific compounds or classes of compounds were isolated from pulp mill effluents and identified as mutagenic agents, including chloropropenes (Nestmann et al, 1980), chlorinated acetones (Douglas et al, 1983), hydroxyfuranone and chloropropenal (Holmbom et al, 1984), dicarbonyl compounds (Kinae et al, 1990), and resin acids such as neoabietic acid (Nestmann et al, 1979), dehydroabietic acid (Kinae et al, 1981a;Pacheco and Santos, 1997) and abietic acid (Pacheco and Santos, 1997). Current results (experiments 2 and 3) confirm the mutagenic potential of RAs, since both compounds significantly induced ENAs.…”

Abietic acid [MAK Value Documentation, 2013]

“…In contrast, neoabietic acid (purity 95%) was mutagenic at concentrations of 400 to 1000 μg/plate in the absence of the metabolic activation system in the strains TA98, TA100, TA1535 and TA1548, but not TA1537. The presence of the metabolic activation system slightly reduced mutagenicity of neoabietic acid (Douglas et al 1980;Nestmann et al 1979). Atest for differential killing in aDNA-polymerase-deficient Escherichia coli strain with abietic acid yielded negative results (no other details; Domanski 1989).…”

Detecting genotoxic activity in industrial effluents using the SOS Chromotest microplate assay

“…Chemical characterizations were conducted on five effluents (27,28,30,33,34) prior to our study. All were shown to contain varied amounts of resin acids (350-3500 pgiL), including neoabietic acid, a known direct mutagen in strains TA98, TA100, and TA1535 of the Ames test (Nestmann et al, 1979). PAHs and a wide range of chlorinated phenols, including pentachlorophenol and 2,4,6-trichlorophenol, were also detected.…”