Abstract
The effectiveness of an aqueous extract of Caryocar brasiliense (Caryocaraceae) Camb pulp, popularly known in Brazil as pequi, against clastogenicity induced by cyclophosphamide and bleomycin was evaluated using an in vivo mouse bone marrow cell micronuclei test, an in vitro Chinese hamster ovary cell (CHO-K1) chromosome aberration test and an in vitro antioxidant assay based on the oxidative damage to 2-deoxy-D-ribose (2-DR) induced by hydroxyl radicals (•OH) generated by the reaction between ascorbic acid and (Fe III)-EDTA. In mouse bone marrow cells the extract showed a protective effect against micronuclei induced by cyclophosphamide and bleomycin but did not interfere with polychromatic bone marrow erythrocyte proliferation, except when the mice had been treated with the highest dose of cyclophosphamide. When CHO-K1 cells were pretreated by adding 0.01, 0.05 or 0.1 mL of extract per mL of cell culture medium 24 or 48 h before bleomycin or cyclophosphamide there was a protective effect against chromosome breaks and a significant decrease in the mitotic index (a measure of cytotoxicity) of the CHO-K1 cells. The extract also had a protective effect against oxidative hydroxyl radical damage to 2-DR. This study suggests that C. brasiliense pulp aqueous extract has anticlastogenic potential, possibly due to its antioxidative properties.
Highlights
Medicinal plants often represent the only therapeutic resource for many communities and ethnic groups
The in vivo micronucleus test showed that when administered orally the extract resulted in no statistically significant (p = 0.9369) increase in the number of micronuclei compared with the M1 water control group, indicating that the extract produced no clastogenic effect in respect to micronuclei frequency (Table 1)
The groups administered clastogens without extract showed statistically significant increases in micronucleus frequency when compared to the M1 group and clastogenic effects and there was a marked increase in the number of micronuclei in group M5 cells, treated with 100 mg kg-1bw bleomycin, as compared to group M3 treated with 50 mg kg-1bw bleomycin (Table 1)
Summary
Medicinal plants often represent the only therapeutic resource for many communities and ethnic groups. In the Brazilian savannah (the cerrado), Caryocar brasiliense Camb., popularly known as pequi, is a common tree frequently used in folk medicine to treat many types of ailment, such as influenza, asthma and other respiratory diseases. The pulp of the fruit of this tree is often used in the regional cooking in typical dishes such as “rice with pequi” and contains many compounds with antioxidant properties (Facioli and Gonçalves, 1998; Azevedo-Meleiro and Rodrigues-Amaya, 2004). Due to the high biodiversity of tropical and subtropical areas Latin America has many plant foods rich in carotenes. In Brazil, there is a serious threat that carotenoid-rich indigenous species may be supplanted by introduced crops with a lower carotenoid con-. Departamento de Genética e Morfologia, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade de Brasília, 70910-900 Brasília, DF, Brazil.
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