BACKGROUND Crotalaria pallida Ailton is a plant belonging to the Fabaceae family, popularly known as "rattle or rattlesnake" and used in traditional medicine to treat swelling of the joints and as a vermifuge. Previous pharmacological studies have also reported anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial and antifungal activities. Nevertheless, scientific information regarding this species is scarce, and ...

DMBA, 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene, is a widely studied polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon that has long been recognized as a probable human carcinogen. It has been found that DMBA is phototoxic in bacteria as well as in animal or human cells and photomutagenic in Salmonella typhimurium strain TA102. This article tempts to explain the photochemistry and photomutagenicity mechanism. Light irradia...

Pigments extracted from natural products are widely used for food coloration in Japan. An investigation concerning the photo-mutagenicity and photo-carcinogenicity of frequently used colorants in Japan was performed. Colorants examined were from Laccifer lacca (lac-color), Coccus cacti (cochineal-color), Carthamus tinctorius (carthamus yellow), Gardenia augusta (gardenia yellow and gardenia blu...

Bilirubin exhibits antioxidant and antimutagenic effects in vitro. Additional tetrapyrroles that are naturally abundant were tested for antigenotoxicity in Salmonella. Un-/conjugated bilirubin (1 and 2), biliverdin (4), bilirubin and biliverdin dimethyl esters (3 and 5), stercobilin (6), urobilin (7), and protoporphyrin (8) were evaluated at physiological concentrations (0.01-2 μmol/plate; 3.5-...

Byrsonima basiloba A. Juss. species is a native arboreal type from the Brazilian "cerrado" (tropical American savanna), and the local population uses it to treat diseases, such as diarrhea and gastric ulcer. It belongs to the Malpighiaceae family, and it is commonly known as "murici." Considering the popular use of B. basiloba derivatives and the lack of pharmacological potential studies regard...

It is still unclear whether the exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMFs) generated by mobile phone radiation is directly linked to cancer. We examined the biological effects of an EMF at 835 MHz, the most widely used communication frequency band in Korean CDMA mobile phone networks, on bacterial reverse mutation (Ames assay) and DNA stability (in vitro DNA degradation). In the Ames assay, test...

Nine hydroperoxy and hydroperoxy-epidioxy oxidation products derived from either autoxidation (AO) or photosensitized oxidation (PO) of methyl linoleate (MLo) or methyl linolenate (MLn) were tested for mutagenic activity by the Salmonella typhimurium his+ reversion assay using strains TA100, TA98, TA102, TA97 and TA1537. All nine oxidation products, monohydroperoxides from AO-MLn (I) or from PO...

Baccharis dracunculifolia is a plant native from Brazil, commonly known as 'Alecrim-do-campo' and 'Vassoura' and used in alternative medicine for the treatment of inflammation, hepatic disorders and stomach ulcers. Previous studies reported that artepillin C (ArtC, 3-{4-hydroxy-3,5-di(3-methyl-2-butenyl)phenyl}-2(E)-propenoic acid), is the main compound of interest in the leaves. This study was...

Palmitoylethanolamide (PEA) is a natural fatty acid amide found in a variety of foods, which was initially identified in egg yolk. MicroPEA of defined particle size (0.5-10 μm) was evaluated for mutagenicity in Salmonella typhimurium, for clastogenicity/aneuploidy in cultured human lymphocytes, and for acute and subchronic rodent toxicity in the rat, following standard OECD test protocols, in a...

The chemical compound temephos (0,0,0',0'-tetrametyl-0,0'-thiodi-p-phenylene phosphorothioate) is an organophosphorous pesticide that has been used in Brazil since 1967 in control campaigns against the mosquito Aedes aegypti, the vector of dengue and yellow fever. We used single cell gel electrophoresis (SCGE), SOS/umu and Ames/Salmonella assays to test the toxicity and mutagenicity of temephos...