Abstract
Several tannins such as (+) -catechin, (-) -epicatechin and penta-O-galloyl glucose (PGG) have been well characterized as antimutagens or anticarcinogens in previous studies. The present studies were carried out to examine the antimutagenic activities of a hydrolysable tannin, eugeniin, which is contained in certain crude drugs and has high antiviral activity. The antimutagenic activity was tested by the Ames method against the respective mutagenicity of Trp-P-1, Trp-P-2 and an activated form of Trp-P-2 (act. Trp-P-2), which were metabolized by S9 Mix, or 1-nitropyrene (1-NP) toward Salmonella typhimurium TA98. Addition of 65μg of eugeniin or 50 μg PGG into each plate caused a decrease of about 50% in the mutagenicity on Trp-P-1, respectively. Eugeniin also markedly suppressed the mutagenicity of Trp-P-1, Trp-P-2, act. Trp-P-2 or 1-NP. The antimutagenicity against act. Trp-P-2 and 1-NP was higher than that against Trp-p-1 or Trp-P-2 (+S9 Mix). Therefore, it was concluded that eugeniin reacted directly against each of the mutagens used, and strongly interfered with their mutagenic activities. These results suggest that the antimutagenic activity of eugeniin is essentially due to desmutagenicity.
