Mutagenicity and antimutagenicity of teas used in popular medicine in the salmonella/microsome assay.

Plant species are widely used in tea form in Brazil, but little is known about scientific aspects of the effect of these aqueous extracts on human health or on genetic material. Mutagenic and antimutagenic activities of three plant species, Vitex montevidensis Cham. (Lamiaceae), Gochnatia cordata Less. (Asteraceae) and G. polymorpha (Asteraceae) in the Salmonella/microsome assay were evaluated. No mutagenic activity was found for base-pair substitution (TA100) and frameshift mutations (TA98) in the three extracts studied. Low indexes of mutagenesis inhibition induced for the V. montevidensis extract with the sodium azide mutagen and results of co-mutagenesis with 4-oxide-1-nitroquinoline were observed for the three extracts evaluated without addition of a rat liver metabolic system fraction (S9 mix). Assays with S9 mix showed significant antimutagenic properties against mutagenesis induced by 2-aminofluorene, both for TA98 (67% of the assays) and for TA100 (100% of the assays). This protective activity was possibly related to properties described for flavonoids and/or tannins acting as potential inactivators of enzymes involved in the mutagen metabolism.