A mutagen precursor in Chinese cabbage, indole-3-acetonitrile, which becomes mutagenic on nitrite treatment

After treatment with nitrite, Chinese cabbage showed direct-acting mutagenicity on Salmonella typhimurium TA100 inducing 3100 revertants per g. One of the mutagen precursors that became mutagenic after nitrite treatment was isolated, and identified as indole-3-acetonitrile. After treatment with nitrite, 1 mg of indole-3-acetonitrile induced 17 400 revertants of TA100 and 21 000 revertants of TA98 without S9 mix.