In order to further investigate the genotoxic effects of Sophorae Flos
, Astragali Radix and Eucommiae Cortex which are reported to induce mu
tagenicity in Ames test, a chromosome aberration study of the water ex
tracts of these crude drugs was carried out using cultured Chinese ham
ster lung cells. Sophorae Flos did not induce chromosomal aberrations
in either direct method or S9 Mix method. In the S9 Mix method, Astrag
ali Radix at a dose of 1.25 mg/ml modestly increased the incidence of
aberrant cells (16%). Eucommiae Cortex was strongly clastogenic to the
cells and dramatically elevated the incidence of aberrant cells (98%)
at a concentration of 4.55 mg/ml in the direct method. These results
suggest that Astragali Radix and Eucommiae Cortex may be genotoxic to
mammalian cells