New insight into the antigenotoxic activity of Gentiana lutea extracts – Protective effect against food borne mutagens

Abstract Food mutagens formed from amino acids during heating of meat have the potential to induce serious consequences on human health. As a result, the identification of naturally occurring, genoprotective agents, is of great importance. The aim of this study was to chemically characterize a root and leaf extracts of Gentiana lutea and to investigate the antigenotoxic effects of extracts and pure constituents (gentiopicroside and mangiferin). Antigenotoxic effects were shown for combinations with the food borne mutagens IQ and PhIP using hepatoma HepG2 cells. Furthermore, their antioxidant activity and their capacity to modulate Nrf2 expression and affect the glutathione redox status were tested. Chemical analyses showed that the most abundant constituents found in root extract are gentiopicroside and sweroside. On the other hand, homoorientin and isovitexin were the dominant ones in leaf extract. Strong genoprotective activities of all tested compounds against both mutagens were observed in alkaline comet assays (up to 77% of tail intensity inhibition, p