Clastogenicity of Eucommiae Cortex and Astragali Radix

In order to further investigate the genotoxic effects of Sophorae Flos, Astragali Radix and Eucommiae Cortex which are reported to induce mutagenicity in Ames test, a chromosome aberration study of the water extracts of these crude drugs was carried out using cultured Chinese hamster lung cells. Sophorae Flos did not induce chromosomal aberrations in either direct method or S9 Mix method. In the S9 Mix method, Astragali Radix at a dose of 1.25 mg/ml modestly increased the incidence of aberrant cells (16%). Eucommiae Cortex was strongly clastogenic to the cells and dramatically elevated the incidence of aberrant cells (98%) at a concentration of 4.55 mg/ml in the direct method. These results suggest that Astragali Radix and Eucommiae Cortex may be genotoxic to mammalian cells