Mutagenesis Advance Access originally published online on January 6, 2006
Mutagenesis 2006 21(1):61-66; doi:10.1093/mutage/gei075
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Protective effects of Mentha piperita Linn on benzo[a]pyrene-induced lung carcinogenicity and mutagenicity in Swiss albino mice
Radiation and Cancer Biology Laboratory, Department of Zoology, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur-302 004, India
The chemopreventive and antimutagenic effects of an aqueous extract of Mentha piperita leaves were evaluated by using 9 week medium term model of benzo[a]pyrene (BP)-induced lung tumors. Lung tumors were induced by a single subcutaneous injection in the scapular region with BP in newborn Swiss albino mice (<24 h old). The oral administration of Mentha extract (ME) showed a significant reduction in the number of lung tumors from an incidence of 67.92% in animals given only BP to 26.31%. The inhibition rate was 61.26% in ME treated group with respect to reference group (BP-alone). However, tumor multiplicity was reduced from 0.83 in the BP-alone group to 0.31 in the BP + ME group. Also, ME treatment reduced the frequency of BP-induced chromosomal aberrations and micronuclei in bone marrow cells and decreased the levels of lipoperoxides and increased sulfhydryl groups in liver as well as lung. In cell-free assays, ME showed strong scavenging activity for both the DPPH and ABTS+ radicals. ME had an IC50 value of 272 µg/ml in the DPPH assay. The chemopreventive action and antimutagenic effects observed in the present study is attributed to the antioxidative and radical scavenging properties of ME.
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