Evaluating Mutagenicity of Burned Arginine-based Heterocyclic Amines and Anti-mutagenicity Effect of Chinese Medicinal Herbs

From the unexpected finding that cooked grains and meat substitutes elicit a mutagenic response in Salmonella typhimurium TA98, our work has been aimed at deconstructing this finding via a survey of heated binary amino acid combinations, involving arginine, a plant-based amino acid. secondly, our work has looked towards sing phytochemical extracts from traditional Chinese medicinal herbs to inhibit the mutagenic activity of heterocyclic amines (main culprit for mutagenicity in meat). Two fractions from the burned products of arginine and phenylalanine (RF-HCA-06 and -07) were statistically significant inducers of mutagenesis; Scutellaria barbata and Oldenlandia diffusa, both separately and together, were statistically significant inhibitors of PhIP-induced mutagenesis. Further fractionaton of the compounds and herbal extracts may lead to the discovery of the compound(s) responsible for inducing or inhibiting mutagenicity, respectively

P-01 Mutagenicity (Ames) Test Optimization for Evaluating Mutagenicity of Burned Arginine-based Heterocyclic Amines and the Anti-mutagenic Effect of Chinese Medicinal Herbs

From the unexpected finding that cooked grains and meat substitutes elicit a mutagenic response in Salmonella typhimurium TA98, our work has been aimed at deconstructing this finding via a survey of heated binary amino acid combinations, involving arginine, a plant-based amino acid. Secondly, our work has looked for possible substances, such as traditional Chinese medicinal herbs, that can inhibit the mutagenic activity of heterocyclic amines (HCAs, the main culprit for mutagenicity in meat). Our findings indicate that mutagenic activity exists with HCA-like products from heated amino acids and that the tested Chinese herbs effectively inhibit a known HCA, PhIP