Ames B N, Profet M, Gold L S
Division of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of California, Berkeley 94720.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1990 Oct;87(19):7782-6. doi: 10.1073/pnas.87.19.7782.
The toxicology of synthetic chemicals is compared to that of natural chemicals, which represent the vast bulk of the chemicals to which humans are exposed. It is argued that animals have a broad array of inducible general defenses to combat the changing array of toxic chemicals in plant food (nature's pesticides) and that these defenses are effective against both natural and synthetic toxins. Synthetic toxins such as dioxin are compared to natural chemicals, such as indole carbinol (in broccoli) and ethanol. Trade-offs between synthetic and natural pesticides are discussed. The finding that in high-dose tests, a high proportion of both natural and synthetic chemicals are carcinogens, mutagens, teratogens, and clastogens (30-50% for each group) undermines current regulatory efforts to protect public health from synthetic chemicals based on these tests.
将合成化学品的毒理学与天然化学品的毒理学进行了比较，天然化学品占人类接触的化学品的绝大部分。有人认为，动物拥有一系列广泛的可诱导的一般防御机制，以对抗植物性食物（天然杀虫剂）中不断变化的有毒化学品，并且这些防御机制对天然毒素和合成毒素均有效。将二噁英等合成毒素与吲哚甲醇（西兰花中的）和乙醇等天然化学品进行了比较。讨论了合成农药与天然农药之间的权衡。在高剂量测试中，很大比例的天然化学品和合成化学品都是致癌物、诱变剂、致畸剂和染色体断裂剂（每组30 - 50%）这一发现，削弱了目前基于这些测试来保护公众健康免受合成化学品危害的监管努力。
