Chapter 16. Bioassays for Antioxidant, genotoxic, mutagenic, and cytotoxic activities

SOBERÓN, J.R.; SGARIGLIA, M.A.; SAMPIETRO, D.A.; QUIROGA, E.N.; VATTUONE, M.A.

Isolation, identification and characterization of allelochemicals/natural products

Science Publishers, Inc.

Lugar: Enfield, USA; Año: 2009; p. 459 - 497

The plant kingdom is an important source of chemical compounds employed as agrochemicals, food additives, pharmacological drugs and cosmetics. Safety application of these bioactive compounds requires characterization of their toxic effects, a main topic in natural product research. Toxicological assays allow to asses cytotoxic, genotoxic, or mutagenic hazard of natural products. Genotoxic and mutagenic agents could exert their toxicity by an oxidative mechanism, which involves generation of free radicals, specially the reactive oxygen species (ROS). This chapter describes simple, rapid and economical techniques commonly used for evaluation of antioxidant, genotoxic, mutagenic, and cytotoxic activities in natural product research. The Bacillus subtilis rec-assay, Allium test, Ames test with Salmonella tiphymurium or Escherichia coli strains and several antioxidant assays are provided.