Antimutagenic and cytotoxic effect of Asparagus laricinus.

B93

In South African black men prostate cancer is the second most common histologically diagnosed malignancy and in white men the third common cancer. There are as yet no extremely effective drugs to treat most cancers, moreover many cancer treatments are very expensive. Evaluation of the antimutagenic/anticarcinogenic properties of Asparagus laricinus could have important implications for its use as anticancer agent.The Ames test, recommended for testing the mutagenicity of chemical compounds with potential pharmacological application, was used in the present study. The mutagenic activity was evaluated in Salmonella typhimurium strains TA97, TA98, TA100 and TA102 and cytotoxic effect in Hep G2 cells.The mutagenicity tests were negative throughout (1:10, 1:25, 1:50, 1:100, and 1:200). The highest antimutagenic effect in the order of 49% was observed using TA98 (5ug daunomycin/plate, a strong mutagen was used).The antimutagenic profile does suggest Asparagus laricinus extract is both effective for oxidative stress related diseases (TA102) and non-oxidative stress diseases (TA97, TA98 and TA100).Cytotoxicity tests indicate that the extract has very low cytotoxic effect (10%).