Terminalia catappa, an anticlastogenic agent against MMS induced genotoxicity in the human lymphocyte culture and in bone marrow cells of Albino mice

Background : Terminalia catappa has been used as a folk medicine for treating dermatitis, hepatitis as well as other diseases in India. It possesses anticancer, antioxidant as well as anticlastogenic characteristics. Aim : The aim of the present investigation is to highlight the anticarcinogenic and antimutagenic potential of extracts of T. catappa . Subjects : Anticarcinogenic potential of methanolic extract of T. catappa has been tested against the carcinogenicity induced by methyl methanesulfonate in the in vitro and in vivo models. Methods : The parameters for evaluation included chromosomal aberrations (CA), sister chromatid exchanges (SCEs) and replication indices (RI) both in the presence as well as in the absence of exogenous metabolic activation system ( in vitro study) and total aberrant cells and the frequencies of aberrations were used (for in vivo methods). Results : Alcoholic extracts of T. catappa significantly reduce chromosomal aberration from 34.42%, 70.65% and 82.80% at 24, 48, and 72 h produced by methyl methanesulfonate (MMS) to 22.77%, 49.60% and 42.50% levels. Similarly the number of sister chromatid exchanges was reduced from 6.20 per cell to 3.10 per cell at 48 h of treatment and replication index was enhanced in vitro for each concentration and duration of treatment. Further their ameliorating potential was dose and duration dependant. Similarly these extracts significantly reduced the number of aberrant cells or frequency of aberrations per cell in vivo. Conclusion : Extracts of T. catappa significantly reduced chromosomal aberrations up to 11.65% to 40.30% at different dosages against MMS induced toxicity, similarly sister chromatid exchange was reduced and replication index enhanced in vitro . Similarly in the in vivo experiments, the effective reduction in clastogeny ranges from 19.70% to 40.90%. Their reducing potential was time and dose dependant. Keywords: Antigenotoxicity; Terminalia catappa ; Chromosomal aberration; Sister chromatid exchange; Replication index