Evaluation of the Genotoxic Potential against H2O2-Radical-Mediated DNA Damage and Acute Oral Toxicity of Standardized Extract of Polyalthia longifolia Leaf

Medicinal plants have been used in medicoculturally diverse countries around the world, where it is a part of a time-honoured tradition that is respected even today. Polyalthia longifolia leaf extract has been previously reported as an efficient antioxidant in vitro. Hence, the genotoxic effects of P. longifolia leaf were investigated by using plasmid relation, comet, and Allium cepa assay. In the presence of   (∙) OH radicals, the DNA in supercoil was start nicked into open circular form, which is the product of the single-stranded cleavage of supercoil DNA and quantified as fragmented separate bands on agarose gel in plasmid relation assay. In the plasmid relation and comet assay, the P. longifolia leaf extract exhibited strong inhibitory effects against H2O2-mediated DNA damage. A dose-dependent increase of chromosome aberrations was also observed in the Allium cepa assay. The abnormalities scored were stickiness, c-mitosis, bridges, and vagrant chromosomes. Micronucleated cells were also observed at the interphase. The results of Allium cepa assay confirmed that the methanol extracts of P. longifolia exerted no significant genotoxic or mitodepressive effects at 100  μ g/mL. Thus, this study demonstrated that P. longifolia leaf extract has a beneficial effect against oxidative DNA damage. This experiment is the first report for the protective effect of P. longifolia on DNA damage-induced by hydroxyl radicals. Additionally in acute oral toxicity study, female rats were treated at 5000 mg/kg body weight of P. longifolia leaf extract and observed for signs of toxicity for 14 days. P. longifolia leaf extract did not produce any treatment-related toxic effects in rats.