Geraniol, a natural monoterpene, identifications of cytotoxic and genotoxic effects in vitro.

Geraniol (GER) is an acyclic monoterpene alcohol. This study aimed to investigate the cytotoxic and genotoxic effect of GER in human lymphocytes using chromosomal aberrations (CAs) micronucleus (MN) assays and DNA damaging effect using comet assay in isolated human lymphocytes as well as cytotoxic effect in MCF-7 cells using MTT and Neutral red uptake (NRU) assays. Cells were treated with between 4 and 500 µg/mL of GER. GER significantly reduced the cell viability at 4, 20, 100 and 500 µg/mL at 48 hours in MCF-7 cells. GER also had a cytotoxic effect by lowering the mitotic index at 20–100 μg/mL in human lymphocytes. GER significantly induced the frequency of CAs and CA/cell at both treatments. GER did not significant affect the MN frequency. GER significantly increased the comet tail intensity and moment at 50, 100, and 500 µg/mL. GER exerted cytotoxic and genotoxic effects especially at higher concentrations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]