Absence of Clastogenic Effects of the Extract from Medicinal Plant Rosmarinus officinalis L. on Wistar Rat Bone Marrow Cells

Abstract

The use of medicinal plants by the general population is an old and still widespread practice, which makes studies of their mutagenicity essential. Rosmarinus officinalis, long used in folk medicine, is used as an antispasmodic in renal colic and dysmenorrhoea, in relieving respiratory disorders, to stimulate growth of hair and has choleretic, hepatoprotective and antitumerogenic activity. The aim of this study was to evaluate the clastogenic potential of the Rosmarinus officinalis hidro-alcoholic extract in vivo on bone marrow cells of Wistar rats by evaluating the induction of chromosome aberrations and micronuclei induction on polychromatic erythrocytes. The extract was administered by gavage at doses of 6.43, 100 and 200 mg/kg body weight. Experimental and control animals were submitted to euthanasia 24 h after the treatment. R. officinalis extract did not induce statistically significant increases in the average numbers of micronucleus or chromosome aberrations in the test systems employed.