Treetip Ratanavalachai, Sumon Thitiorul, and Pranee Nandhasri

pp. 583 - 589

Abstract

The genotoxic and antigenotoxic effects of Noni fruit juice produced in Thailand have been studied in human lymphocytes for chromosome aberration assay and sister chromatid exchange (SCE) assay in vitro. Treatment of Noni fruit juice (3.1-50 mg/ml) alone for 3 h did not significantly induce chromosomal aberration or SCE (p<0.05). Noni fruit juice at 6.2 mg/ml is the optimum dose for cell survival and cell replication as demonstrated by the highest value of mitotic index and proliferation index (P.I.). Interestingly, pretreatment of Noni fruit juice at the same concentration of 6.2 mg/ml for 2 h
followed by mitomycin C treatment at 3 µg/ml for 2 h significantly reduced SCE level induced by mitomycin C (p<0.05). However, these treatments did not show significant decrease in chromatid-type aberrations. Our data indicate that Thai Noni fruit juice is not genotoxic against human lymphocytes in vitro. In addition, pretreatment of Noni fruit juice at 6.2 mg/ml demonstrated no anticlastogenic effect while had some antigenotoxic effects as demonstrated by significant decrease in the SCE level induced by mitomycin C (p<0.05). Therefore, the optimum dose of Noni fruit juice used as a traditional medicine
is required and needs to be studied further for the benefit of human health.