In vitro genotoxic evaluation of the medicinal plant Chenopodium ambrosioides L.

Chenopodium ambrosioides (Chenopodiaceae) is an anthelmintic herb used in Latin-America's folk medicine. The aim of this work is to evaluate genetic damage induced by decoction and infusion of this plant which were assayed in different concentrations (1, 10, 100, 1000 microg/ml), by addition of the extract to human lymphocyte cell cultures. The endpoints evaluated were chromosomal aberrations (CA), sister chromatid exchanges (SCE), cell proliferation kinetics (CPK) and mitotic indexes (MI). The repeated measure analysis of variance was used for statistic evaluation of the results. The results showed (a) a statistical increase in the percentage of cells with CA and in the frequency of SCE when cultures were exposed to both preparations of Paico, (b) a decrease in MI of both preparations assayed, although no modification in the CPK values either in the infusion or in the decoction was observed. These results suggest a possible genotoxic effect of both preparations, probably due to different active principles.