Abstract:
In response to the increasing competition in the world market, various food preservatives have been widely used to maintain the high quality of Philippine food products. However, some of these chemicals have known toxicity to different test systems including humans. In this regard, there is a need to conduct more research on natural products which can reduce the risks caused by food additives. The present study provides an evaluation on the potential antigenotoxic effects of varying concentrations and combinations of Momordica charantia (var. AMP03) leaf and ground Coffea canephora bean extracts on Allium sativum root tips exposed to 100 ppm boric acid (BA) for 24 hours. Chromosomal aberration test, Sequence-Related Amplified Polymorphism Polymerase Chain Reaction (SRAP-PCR), and mass spectrometry (MS) analysis were performed. Four parameters which include percent mitotic index (MI), percent total abnormalities and band variations from SRAP profiles using two primer combinations (ME2 and EM4; ME5 and EM2) were considered in screening for potential antigenotoxic property. The treatment groups studied include single treatment of coffee concentrations series (c.s.) (25%, 50% and 75%) and ampalaya c.s., combined treatment of coffee c.s. with boric acid and ampalaya c.s. with boric acid and the combinatorial treatment of ampalaya c.s. and coffee c.s. with boric acid. Results validated the genotoxicity of 100 ppm boric acid in A. sativum root tips as indicated by the percent mitotic index (MI) obtained (0.24%), demonstration of wide range of mitotic abnormalities, and band variations in SRAP profiles. The ampalaya treatment demonstrated total mitotic inhibition and induced an increase in percent total abnormalities which may indicate its inhibitory property. Generally, the coffee treatment groups showed an increase in mitotic activity and a significant decrease in percent total abnormalities. Overall, the 25% ampalaya with c.s. of coffee and boric acid scored 3 out of 4 parameters which suggests the protective effect of combined extracts against 100 ppm boric acid. MS analysis indicated that caffeine with base peak intensity (BPI= 2.79) and chlorogenic acid (BPI=2.63) might be responsible for the putative anti-genotoxic property of ground coffee and momordicin II (BPI=9.16) in ampalaya leaf extracts.
