Genotoxicity studies of the reaction of chlorine or chlorine dioxide with L-tryptophan.

Non-volatile reaction products generated from the reactions of 70 mM aqueous chlorine or chlorine dioxide with 10 mM L-tryptophan were shown to be direct-acting mutagens to Salmonella typhimurium TA100 and TA98. Several of the fluorescent bands obtained after thin-layer chromatographic fractionation of the XAD-2/8 resin concentrates of the reaction mixtures were shown to be more mutagenic than the reaction mixtures using the Ames Salmonella/microsome assay. In addition, these fractions were shown to be capable of increasing significantly the frequency of sister chromatid exchange in Chinese hamster ovary cells in the absence of rat liver S9 mix. GC/MS analysis of the products in a highly mutagenic fraction of the aqueous chlorine reaction products identified 1,1,3-trichloropropanone, 1,1,3,3-tetrachloropropanone and dichloroquinoline.