Study of Antimutagenic Potential of Phytoconstituents Isolated from Terminalia arjuna in the Salmonella/Microsome Assay

Two fractions ET-1 and TW isolated from Terminalia arjuna were evaluated for their antimutagenic potential against 4-nitro-o-phenylenediamine (NPD) in TA98, sodium azide in TA100 and 2-aminofluorene, in both TA98 and TA100 tester strains of Salmonella typhimurium using bacterial reverse mutation assay. Both the fractions inhibited the mutagenicity of 2AF significantly in both the strains. ET-1 fraction inhibited the mutagenicity of base pair substitution mutagen sodium azide by 77.41% at 1×10 3 μg/0.1ml. It did not inhibit the mutagenicity of NPD. TW fraction showed insignificant inhibitory activity against the mutagenicity of NPD and sodium azide in TA100 and TA98 tester strains respectively. 1 H-NMR, 13 C-NMR and IR-spectroscopic data of the fractions revealed ET-1 fraction as a diglycoside of triterpene and TW fraction as tannin in nature.