Antigenotoxic and Antioxidant Activities of Fruit Extracts from (Tunisian) Pistacia Lentiscus

Genotoxic and antigenotoxic activities against direct acting mutagen nifuroxazide, and indirect acting genotoxin aflatoxine B1 (AFB1) of extracts prepared from fruits of Pistacia lentiscus, were studied using the SOS chromotest with Escherichia coli PQ 37 as a tester organism. It was found that different extracts showed no genotoxicity when tested with E. coli PQ 37 strain either with or without microsomal extract. On the other hand, our results showed that ethyl acetate fraction and total oligomers flavonoids (TOF) extract obtained from P. lentiscus significantly decreased the genotoxicicity induced by AFB1 (10 μg/assay) and nifuroxazide (20 μg/assay). In addition to antigenotoxic activity, these extracts showed an important free radical scavenging activity towards the 2,2-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical and an important antioxidant activity using xanthine/xanthine oxidase system.