Antimutagenic effect of Origanum majorana L. essential oil against prallethrin-induced genotoxic damage in rat bone marrow cells.

This study aimed to investigate the genotoxic and cytotoxic potential of prallethrin in rat bone marrow cells and the protective effect of Origanum majorana L. essential oil (EO). Our results demonstrated that prallethrin at dose 64.0 mg/kg body weight (b.wt.) (1/10 LD50), has a clastogenic/genotoxic potential as shown by the high percentage of chromosomal aberration (CA) and micronucleus (MN) in the bone marrow cells of male rats, whereas the combined treatment of prallethrin and O. majorana EO resulted in the reduction of the CA (54.54%). The combined treatment also reduced the micronuclei formation significantly. In conclusion, prallethrin can be considered clastogenic/genotoxic and may carry a risk to human health. The study revealed the antigenotoxic and anticytotoxic potential of O. majorana EO against prallethrin-induced genotoxic and cytotoxic effects in rat bone marrow cells.