Chemical composition, genotoxicity and antigenotoxicity study of Artemisia herba-alba using the eye and wing SMART assay of Drosophila melanogaster
Sanae Amkiss, Abdelkrim Dalouh, Mohamed Idaomar
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to determine the chemical composition and to evaluate the genotoxic and antigentoxic activites of the Moroccan Artemisia herba-alba ethanolic extract. The ethanolic extract of Artemisia herba-alba was analyzed by gas chromatography coupled with mass spectroscopy (GC-MS). The mutagenic and antimutagenic activities were evaluated using the somatic mutation and recombination test (SMART) on Drosophila melanogaster. Methyl methanesulfonate (MMS) was used as the positive control. Twenty-one compounds of the Artemisia herba-alba ethanol extract were identified; the main monoterpenes identified are camphor, α-thujone and β-thujone. Ethanolic extract of Artemisia herba-alba did not show gentotoxicity at doses used in SMART Assays. In the co-treatment, a dose-dependent decrease in mutation frequency was observed for this plant. Ethanolic extract of Artemisia herba-alba at 1.5% demonstrated a marked decrease in MMS with a strong inhibitory effect (80%). The results demonstrate that the Artemisia herba-alba exerted a significant and potent anti-mutagenic activity in wing and eye-spot of D. melanogaster.