title: Quantitative genotoxicity assays for analysis of medicinal plants: A systematic review.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Medicinal plants are known to contain numerous biologically active compounds, and although they have proven pharmacological properties, they can cause harm, including DNA damage.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  Review the literature to evaluate the genotoxicity risk of medicinal plants, explore the genotoxicity assays most used and compare these to the current legal requirements.
  
  
  METHODS
  A quantitative systematic review of the literature, using the keywords "medicinal plants", "genotoxicity" and "mutagenicity", was undertakenQ to identify the types of assays most used to assess genotoxicity, and to evaluate the genotoxicity potential of medicinal plant extracts.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The database searches retrieved 2289 records, 458 of which met the inclusion criteria. Evaluation of the selected articles showed a total of 24 different assays used for an assessment of medicinal plant extract genotoxicity. More than a quarter of those studies (28.4%) reported positive results for genotoxicity.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This review demonstrates that a range of genotoxicity assay methods are used to evaluate the genotoxicity potential of medicinal plant extracts. The most used methods are those recommended by regulatory agencies. However, based on the current findings, in order to conduct a thorough study concerning the possible genotoxic effects of a medicinal plant, we indicate that it is important always to include bacterial and mammalian tests, with at least one in vivo assay. Also, these tests should be capable of detecting outcomes that include mutation induction, clastogenic and aneugenic effects, and structural chromosome abnormalities. In addition, the considerable rate of positive results detected in this analysis further supports the relevance of assessing the genotoxicity potential of medicinal plants.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Ciências Farmacêuticas, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Curitiba, PR, Brazil.
authors.forename: Graziela
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Sponchiado
authors.affiliation: Universidade Federal de Pernambuco- UFPE/CAV, Brazil.
authors.forename: Mônica Lucia
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Adam
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Farmacologia, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Centro Politécnico, Curitiba, Brazil.
authors.forename: Caroline Dadalt
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Silva
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Farmacologia, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Centro Politécnico, Curitiba, Brazil.
authors.forename: Bruna Silva
authors.initials: BS
authors.lastname: Soley
authors.affiliation: Pharmacological Sci Department, Faculty of Pharmacy, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal.
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: de Mello-Sampayo
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Farmacologia, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Centro Politécnico, Curitiba, Brazil.
authors.forename: Daniela Almeida
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Cabrini
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Ciências Farmacêuticas, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Curitiba, PR, Brazil.
authors.forename: Cassyano Januário
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Correr
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Farmacologia, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Centro Politécnico, Curitiba, Brazil; Departamento de Ciências Farmacêuticas, Universidade Estadual de Ponta Grossa, Ponta Grossa, PR, Brazil. Electronic address: michelotuki@yahoo.com.br.
authors.forename: Michel Fleith
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Otuki
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001681:Biological Assay / Q000379:methods; D004249:DNA Damage / Q000187:drug effects; D006801:Humans; D009152:Mutagenicity Tests / Q000379:methods; D010936:Plant Extracts / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000633:toxicity*; D010946:Plants, Medicinal / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000633:toxicity*
chemical_list: D010936:Plant Extracts
keywords: Genotoxicity assays; Herbal extracts; Medicinal plants; Systematic review