Dietary chemoprevention of clastogenic effects of 3,4-benzo(a)pyrene by Emblica officinalis Gaertn. fruit extract.

Dietary supplementation with extract of fruit of Emblica officinalis Gaertn. (a rich source of vitamin C) to mice in vivo significantly reduced the cytotoxic effects of a known carcinogen, 3,4-benzo(a)pyrene. Age-matched Swiss albino mice were fed by gavaging the fruit extract daily for 28 days. From day 9, one dose of the carcinogen was given on alternate days up to a total of eight doses. On day 29, all mice were transferred to normal diet. Control sets received the extract alone, the carcinogen alone and olive oil alone. All mice were sacrificed at 12 weeks and 14 weeks after the end of the experiment. Chromosome preparations were made from bone marrow after the usual colchicine-hypotonic-fixative-air drying-Giemsa staining schedule. Cytogenetic end points screened were the frequencies of chromosomal aberrations and of damaged cells induced. The cytotoxic effects were significantly lower in the mice given the fruit extract with the carcinogen than in those given the carcinogen alone.