Evaluation of Plant Extracts in Mammalian Systems: Applications of the Big Blue® Rodent Mutational Assay

Abstract

Cancer prevention with plant-based compounds is an attractive approach to health management. Advantages of such compounds are several-fold including that the general population more easily accepts products of natural sources. This is exemplified by the explosive growth of the North American market in herbal preparations (Greenwald, 1998). However, many of the claims for these products are anecdotal, have not been properly researched, and are sometimes exaggerated. In addition, the true herb composition and possible contamination are often unknown. This is particularly worrisome since large numbers of individuals take these preparations, effectively exposing a large population group to sometimes-unknown dangers. Medicine derived from plant-based products, on the other hand, indicate that many promising compounds can be found in plants. Several compounds with potential cancer therapeutic or cancer preventive properties have been identified and are currently in use, including taxol (Khayat et al., 2000). The development of compounds with cancer preventive properties derived from plants requires a method to determine the efficacy of such compounds in a mammalian system. To make such an assay more time and cost effective, an alternative biomarker other than the cancer endpoint is desirable. One such biomarker that has proven to be useful is mutation. The recent advent of transgenic technology has made it possible to study mutation in animals, rather than in bacteria or cell cultures.