EFFECT OF ACACIA SINUATA AND ADENANTHERA PAVONINA ON CISPLATIN INDUCED GENETIC DAMAGE IN CULTURED HUMAN PERIPHERAL LYMPHOCYTES

Abstract

Many plants are now been exploited for their medical and pharmacological properties. Acacia sinuata has been reported with cure for infectious disease and organ specific disease, confirmed to have analgesic activity and also used to cure jaundice and malarial fever in Ayurveda. Similarly, Adenanthera pavonina is reported for treating wounds, boils, rheumatism, arthritis, diarrhea, and even leprosy. The plant has emetic properties and can induce a person to vomit, but literature studies showed that the safety assessment of such widely used medicinal plants has not been done hence they were chosen for the purpose. The plant extracts of Acacia sinuata and Adenanthera pavonina were tested using chromosomal aberration assay and comet assay for their genotoxicity and further studies were performed to check for the genome repair capability of the plants. The lymphocyte culture was exposed to cisplatin to induce damage to the genome and then treated with the plant extract. In this paper the extracts of A. sinuata and A. pavonina at different concentration significantly increased the mitotic index compared to the cisplatin treated cell alone; this decrease in cell proliferation may be explained by permitting the repair of cisplatin induced DNA damage. Both plants show little genomic activity with increased concentration. All tested concentrations of extract from A. sinuata and A. pavonina had no genotoxic effect on the human blood in vitro.