Genotoxicity of Achillea millefolium essential oil in diploid cells of Aspergillus nidulans.

The essential oil of Achillea millefolium is commonly used in folk medicine for the treatment of several diseases and has been demonstrated previously to exert an in vitro antimicrobial activity against human pathogens. Current study investigates the genotoxic activity of A. millefolium oil. The oil's major constituents are: chamazulene (42.15%), sabinene (19.72%), terpin-4-ol (5.22%), beta-caryophyllene (4.44%) and eucalyptol (3.10%), comprising 74.63% of the total. The oil's genotoxic evaluation was performed at concentrations of 0.13 microL/mL, 0.19 microL/mL and 0.25 microL/mL with a heterozygous diploid strain of Aspergillus nidulans, named A757//UT448, with green conidia. A statistically significant increasing number of yellow and white mitotic recombinants, per colony, of the diploid strain was reported after oil treatment with 0.19 microL/mL and 0.25 microL/mL concentrations. The genotoxicity of the oil was associated with the induction of mitotic non-disjunction or crossing-over by oil. Copyright (c) 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.