Studies on mutagenic constituents of apple brandy and various alcoholic beverages collected in western France, a high incidence area for oesophageal cancer.

Apple brandies, alcoholic spirits produced in the west of France, as well as other types of alcoholic beverage (rums, whiskies, armagnacs, cognacs) were tested for mutagenicity on Salmonella typhimurium TA98 and TA100 in the plate-incorporation assay in the presence or the absence of rat-liver S9. The mutagenic activity of acrolein, gamma-butyrolactone, furfural and glycidol, chemicals usually found in these spirits, was assayed by the same procedure. Glycidol was mutagenic in TA1535 and TA100 without metabolic activation. We found higher and more frequently positive responses in home-made apple brandies than in the other beverages; therefore, further fractionation for isolation of the mutagenic compound(s) was performed by using spinning band column distillation, HPLC and gas chromatography. The fractions contained various types of mutagen, i.e., frameshift and/or base-pair substitution mutagens; some required metabolic activation and others did not in either the alcoholic, aqueous or non-volatile fractions. The results indicate that the high incidence of oesophageal cancer correlated with the alcoholic consumption in these areas might be at least partially attributable to the presence of mutagens in apple brandies.