Asian Journal
Of Traditional Medicines

Abstract: The present work was designed to study the in vitro genotoxic effects of arsenic trioxide and methanolic extract of Andrographis paniculata (AP) in human peripheral lymphocyte culture (HPL). This study was carried out to investigate the consequences of exposure of lymphocytes to arsenic at three dose levels, 0.36 μM, 0.72 μM and 1.4 μM, for 24 h before harvesting. The criteria used included examination of micronuclei (MN), structural aberrations (SA) and numerical aberrations (NA/aneuploidy). Andrographis paniculata extract (syn: ‘Andrographis paniculata’) was co-cultured at the concentration of 4.9 ×10-3 µM along with the highest concentration of arsenic to study its possible beneficial effects. In addition, mutagenic effects of known mutagen mitomycin-C (MMC) were also assessed. The results of this study show that the arsenic-induced dose-dependent increase in the genotoxic endpoints was reduced by suggesting its protective role.

Key words: arsenic, Andrographis, micronucleus, aberrations, aneuploidy