Antimutagenicity against Urethane of Mangosteen, Durian Products and Their Combinations in Somatic Mutation and Recombination Test

Abstract

Lyophilized durian meat, lyophilized mangosteen meat, durian chip, durian paste and the combinations (1:1, 1:2 and 2:1) of each durian product and mangosteen were determined for their effect on urethane induced somatic mutation and recombination in Drosophila melanogaster. The three-day old trans-heterozygous (mwh flr⁺/mwh TM3) larvae were transferred to an experimental medium (substituted each sample for 25, 50, 75 or 100 % of corn flour) that had urethane (20 mM). We analyzed for the occurrence of mutant spots of the wings from the surviving flies and found that most samples enhanced the mutagenicity of urethane with different degree. The enhancement of urethane mutagenicity might involve in the phenomenon that the chemical compounds in the samples induced the activity of mixed function oxidases and saturation of enzymatic systems involved in the DNA repair pathways since the amount of each sample incorporated into the fly medium seemed to be very high. The results as such indicated that high consumption of durian and mangosteen should be with caution since it might enhance the mutagenicity of the compounds contaminated in our daily food. However, we surprisingly found that the combination of durian paste and mangosteen (2:1) had the highest antioxidant activity (determined with DPPH scavenging capacity and ferric reducing antioxidant power assays) as well as the content of phenolic compounds (determined with Folin-Ciocalteu reagent) while durian chip contained the least antioxidant and phenolic compounds.