IS MAN HELPLESS AGAINST CANCER - AN ENVIRONMENTAL APPROACH - ANTIMUTAGENIC AGENTS FROM EGYPTIAN FOOD AND MEDICINAL PREPARATIONS

Sixty-two Egyptian food and medicinal preparations were extensively ex amined for antimutagenic/anticarcinogenic activity using short-term an d host-mediated assays. The antimutagenic activity of the substances e xamined was ranked as follows: thirteen (strong), seven (mild) and fiv e (weak) after metabolic activation. Metabolic activation seems to be necessary for most antimutagenic substances in this study, e.g. radish inhibits 29% of mutagenicity produced in direct antimutagenic assay a nd inhibits 89% of mutagenicity induced in host-mediated assay.