Screening of medicinal plants for induction of somatic segregation activity in Aspergillus nidulans

Knowledge about mutagenic properties of plants commonly used in traditional medicine is limited. A screening for genotoxic activity was carried out in aqueous or alcoholic extracts prepared from 13 medicinal plants widely used as folk medicine in Cuba: Lepidium virginicum L. (Brassicaceae): Plantago major L. and Plantago lanceolata L. (Plantaginaceae); Ortosiphon aristatus Blume, Mentha x piperita L., Melissa officinalis L. and Plectranthus amboinicus (Lour.) Spreng. (Lamiaceae); Cymbopogon citratus (DC.) Stapf (Poaceae); Passiflora incarnata L. (Passifloraceae); Zingiber officinale Roscoe (Zingiberaceae); Piper auritum HBK. (Piperaceae); Schinus terebinthifolius Raddi (Anacardeaceae) and Momordica charantia L. (Cucurbitaceae). A plate incorporation assay with Aspergillus nidulans was employed, allowing detection of somatic segregation as a result of mitotic crossing-over, chromosome malsegregation or clastogenic effects. Aspergillus nidulans D-30, a well-marked strain carrying four recessive mutations for conidial color in heterozygosity, which permitted the direct visual detection of segregants, was used throughout this study. As a result, only in the aqueous extract of one of the plants screened (Momordica charantia) a statistical significant increase in the frequency of segregant sectors per colony was observed, and consequently, a genotoxic effect is postulated.