Potential genotoxicity of plant extracts used in Ethiopian traditional medicine

Potential Genotoxic and Cytotoxic Effects of Plant Extracts

“…Direct interaction between a DNA-reactive agent and DNA is one of several pathways that may lead to primary DNA damage, because major end-points measured in the comet assay such as DNA strand breaks (which could also reflect repair incisions) and alkali-labile sites may also follow from other more indirect events such as cytotoxicity. A situation where DNA damage appears without concomitant cytotoxicity is then obviously of greater concern than a situation where DNA damage only occurs when there are simultaneous overt signs of cytotoxicity (Galloway et al, 1998;Galloway, 2000), and this is true also when evaluating the potential DNA damaging effects of plant extracts containing a plethora of more or less potent bioactive compounds (Demma et al, 2009). …”

Investigation of antioxidant, cytotoxic and apoptotic activities of the extracts from tubers of Asphodelus aestivus Brot.

“…It has been suggested that flavonoids can intercalate with the DNA molecule (Havsteen, 1983) and it has been shown that some flavonoids are mutagenic with pro-oxidant effects (De Carvalho et al, 2003). Flavonoids might therefore cause cytotoxic effect by inducing DNA damage, and in addition to flavonoids, possibly also other components in the crude extracts can have dual actions (Demma et al, 2009). Previous studies suggested that plant-derived extracts containing antioxidant principles showed cytotoxicity towards tumor cells (Marklund et al, 1982) and antitumor activity of these antioxidants is either through induction of apoptosis (Ruby et al, 1995) or by inhibition of neovascularization (Ming et al, 1998).…”

Genotoxic effect ofLythrum salicariaextract determined by the mussel micronucleus test

“…Assessment of the potential genotoxicity of traditional medicines is an important issue [6], and more and more plants are subjected to rigorous testing. In [3] demonstrated the genotoxicity of the aqueous extract of the South African Distephanus angulifolius in the range of 1.3, 2.6, 5.3, and 10.6 g/l aqueous extract, using the Allium cepa bioassay.…”