Antimutagenicity of some flowers grown in Thailand.

The mutagenicity of dichloromethane, methanol and water extracts of Antigonon leptopus Hook. & Arn., Curcuma sessilis Gage, Hibiscus rosa-sinensis Linn., Ixora coccinea Linn., Millingtonia hortensis Linn., Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn., Plumeria obtusa Linn., Punica granatum Linn., Rhinacanthus nasutus ((Linn.) Kurz.) and Syzygium malaccense ((Linn.) Merr.& Perry) before and after nitrite treatment was firstly investigated in the Ames test. Their antimutagenicity against the product of the reaction mixture of 1-aminopyrene nitrite model in the absence of metabolic activation on Salmonella typhimurium TA 98 and TA 100 was evaluated. The results showed that none of the samples was mutagenic. Most nitrite-treated samples but dichloromethane extracts of Hibiscus rosa-sinensis, Plumeria obtusa, Syzygium malaccense, methanol extract of Syzygium malaccense and water extract of Hibiscus rosa-sinensis were mutagenic. The nitrite treated methanol extract of Nelumbo nucifera exhibited the highest mutagenicity on both strains. All dichloromethane extracts of flowers decreased the mutagenicity induced by the product of 1-aminopyrene nitrite model on both tester strains. Methanol extract of Curcuma sessilis and Punica granatum (15 mg/plate) showed the highest antimutagenic activity in TA 98 and TA 100, respectively. The protective effects of these flower extracts might be due to the presence of antimutagenic components that were supposed to be flavonoids.
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