GENOTOXICITY TESTING OF THE HERBICIDE ROUNDUP AND ITS ACTIVE INGREDIENT GLYPHOSATE ISOPROPYLAMINE USING THE MOUSE BONE-MARROW MICRONUCLEUS TEST, SALMONELLA MUTAGENICITY TEST, AND ALLIUM ANAPHASE-TELOPHASE TEST

The genotoxic potential of the herbicide Roundup and its active agent, glyphosate isopropylamine salt, was studied in three different assays . No clastogenic effects were found in the mouse bone marrow micronule us test for either of the two agents. In the Salmonella assay only Rou ndup was tested. It showed a weak mutagenic effect for the concentrati ons 360 mug/plate in TA98 (without S9) and 720 mug/plate in TA100 (wit h S9). These concentrations are close to the toxic level. The anaphase -telophase Allium test showed no effect for the glyphosate isopropylam ine salt, but a significant increase in chromosome aberrations appeare d after treatment with Roundup at concentrations of 1.44 and 2.88 mg/l when calculated as glyphosate isopropylamine. The most frequent aberr ations observed could be characterized as disturbances of the spindle.