ANTIMUTAGENIC EFFECTS OF ELLAGIC ACID, RUTIN AND PSORALEN AGAINST AFLATOXIN-B1

Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) is frequently found in food and feedstuffs. It is a potent mutagenic and carcinogenic (e.g. hepatocellular carcinoma) my cotoxin produced by Aspergillus flavus, A. parasiticus and A. nomius. At the cellular level, after appropriate metabolism of AFB1 in cytochr ome P450-dependent reactions, the resulting epoxide binds to DNA and i nduces point mutations. Using a Salmonella microsuspension assay we ha ve examined: (1) mutagenic activity of AFB1 in the presence of the S9 fraction in TA98 and TA100 tester strains, (2) antimutagenic activity of ellagic acid (EA), rutin (RU) and psoralen (PS) against AFB1. The r esult of our investigations, was that the TA98 strain was more sensiti ve than the TA100 to mutagenic action of AFB1 and antimutagenic action of EA, RU and PS. Among the three compounds PS showed the highest ant i-AFB1 activity; 20 ng of PS inhibited the response to 10 ng of AFB1 b y 90%, while the same amount of EA. inhibited AFB1 by 82%, and RU was less potent still (only 60% inhibition).