Methemoglobinogenic potential of primaquine and its mutagenicity in the Ames test.

Single doses of primaquine did not produce methemoglobinemia in beagle bitches. Repeated daily administration for 12 days produced a gradually rising level of methemoglobin over that time period, unaccompanied by depletion of erythrocytic reduced glutathione. Primaquine was mutagenic in the Ames test in Salmonella typhimurium strain TA 1537, with or without S9, using a liquid preincubation assay. Primaquine was non-mutagenic in this assay to strains TA 1535, TA 1538, TA 98 and TA 100, regardless of the presence or absence of S9. In the standard overpour Ames test, the drug was non-mutagenic in all 5 Salmonella strains, both with and without S9 metabolic activation.