Isolation of a flavonoid, apigenin 7-O-glucoside, from Mentha longifolia (L.) Hudson subspecies longifolia and its genotoxic potency.

Mentha is a medicinal and aromatic plant belonging to the Lamiaceae family, which is widely used in food, flavor, cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries. Recently, it has been found that the use of Mentha as a pharmaceutical source is based on its phytochemical constituents that have far been identified as tannins, saponins, phenolic acids and flavonoids. This study was designed to evaluate the mutagenic and antimutagenic activities of apigenin 7-O-glucoside (A7G), a flavonoid isolated from Mentha longifolia (L.) Hudson subspecies longifolia (ML). The possible antimutagenic potential of A7G was examined against mutagens ethyl methanesulfonate and acridine in an eukaryotic cell system Saccharomyces cerevisiae and sodium azide in Salmonella typhimurium TA1535 and 9-aminoacridine in S. typhimurium TA1537. According to our findings, any concentrations of the A7G used did not show mutagenic activity but exerted strong antimutagenic activities at tested concentrations. The inhibition rates for the Ames test ranged from 27.2% (S. typhimurium TA1535: 0.4 μM/plate) to 91.1% (S. typhimurium TA1537: 0.2 μM/plate) and for the yeast deletion assay from 4% to 57.7%. This genotoxicological study suggests that a flavonoid from ML owing to antimutagenic properties is of great pharmacological importance and might be beneficial to industries producing food additives, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals products.