Mutagenicity tests on anthelmintics: microsomal activation of viprynium embonate to a mutagen

Eight anthelmintic preparations readily available in Australia were tested for mutagenicity in the Salmonella typhimurium test system. A slightly modified version of the procedure recommended by Ames et al. [2] was adopted, in that the test samples were placed in "wells" cut out of the agar of a plate previously seeded with the appropriate tester strain. Addition of a mixture of rat liver microsomal enzymes and appropriate co-factors ("S-9 mix") to one of the two wells on a single plate allowed a possible requirement for metabolic activation to be recognised. Using this procedure, viprynium embonate was found to be non-mutagenic. It was however, activated by the rat liver microsome preparation to a mutagen capable of causing both base-pair substitution (detected with strain TA100) and frameshift (detected with strain TA98) mutations. The other seven compounds tested all gave negative results in this system.