Carcinogenic potential of Indian alcoholic beverage (country liquor)

Epidemiological studies reveal that alcohol consumption is a risk factor for the cancer of the mouth, larynx, esophagus and various other organs. Of the various alcoholic beverages consumed in India, country liquors are widely consumed and that too by the economically weak section of the society. The present paper describes the experiments designed to investigate the effect of one brand of country liquor from Maharashtra State, India (which was found to be more potent in our earlier mutagenicity studies) for its carcinogenicity in two strains of mice and Syrian golden hamsters. The experimental animals received 10% liquor in drinking water from 2 months of age for 16 months. One percent ethanol treated animals served as positive controls. Together with long term bioassays, the transplacental carcinogenic effect of country liquor in the offspring of treated mothers, as well as in the breeders themselves was also investigated. Pregnant mothers were fed 10% liquor through drinking water from 12th day of gestation till weaning of the progeny. Then offspring were allowed to live without further treatment and mothers continued to get liquor treatment. In long term bioassays, liquor caused 22% total tumor incidence in male BALB/c mice and 28% in male Swiss mice. In female Swiss mice and in hamsters, liquor did not show any pronounced effect on tumor incidence. Similar negative results were obtained in case of offspring of treated mothers, but the offspring of liquor treated mothers had higher mortality prior to weaning as compared to those of untreated mothers.