Beneficial effect of tomato juice drinking on anti-mutagenicity of saliva.

OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of tomato juice drinking on the antimutagenicity of saliva. METHODS Subjects were 22 healthy male university students. They were divided into tomato group and control group. The tomato group drank tomato juice for 10 days. The anti-mutagenicity of saliva was measured using the umu test. RESULTS In the tomato group, there was a significant increase in the inhibiting capacity of saliva on the mutagenicity of AF-2 after tomato juice drinking for 10 days. This increase was, however, temporary. In the control group, there was no such change in the inhibiting capacity of saliva. CONCLUSIONS These findings suggest the significant effect of tomato juice drinking on the anti-mutagenicity of saliva. In addition, lycopene may have played an important role in its mechanism.