Antimutagenic and antioxidant activity of the extract from Belamcanda chinensis (L.) DC.

The antioxidant and antimutagenic properties of the extract from the oriental natural drug - Belamcanda chinensis (L.)DC. (Iridaceae) rhizomes have been examined. Three different antioxidant assays and Salmonella antimutagenic test have been used. The extract has strong free radical scavenging activity as shown by the DPPH assay with EC50 of 63.4 microg/mL. Similarly, the high ability to reduce the transition metal ions was shown by phosphomolybdenum assay as well as effective prevention of hydroxyl radical induced linoleic acid peroxidation. The latter averaged 77.9% with an EC50 of 45 microg/mL. The mutations induced in two Salmonella typhimurium strains (TA98 and TA100) by both directly (NQNO) and indirectly acting (2AF) chemical mutagens were inhibited efficiently in dose dependent manner for concentrations of 50-500 microg/mL. The inhibition percentage in TA98 was 62.8% for direct mutagen and 94.4% for enzymatically activated promutagen. In TA100 the inhibition was 82.7% and 73.5%, respectively.