Antimutagen from leaves of Carmona retusa (Vahl) Masam.

An antimutagenic principle was extracted from the leaves of Carmona retusa with ethyl alcohol. This was then purified by solvent partition and liquid chromatography. The micronucleus test, an in vivo method, using albino mice as the test system was used for monitoring the antimutagenic activity. At a dosage of 23.4 mg/kg body weight, the pure isolate reduced by 68.4% the number of micronucleated polychromatic erythrocytes induced by the mutagen tetracycline. Statistical analysis (one-way ANOVA) shows that the variance of the pure isolate differs significantly from that of tetracycline, a known mutagen.