Abstract: The mutagenicity of tea green pigment was studied. No mutagenic proof s were found in Ames test . The f requencies of micronucleus in bone marrow PCE cells of mice t reated with tea green pigment at the doses of 800mg/ kg ( 1/ 16LD50) 、1 600mg/ kg ( 1/ 8LD50) 、3 200mg/ kg ( 1/ 4LD50) showed no significant difference when compared with that of cont rol. The distinctly increasing separation of sexual chromosome was found in mice t reated with tea green pigment at the 3 200mg/ kg (1/ 4LD50) and 800mg/ kg (1/ 16LD50) groups in primary spermatocyte chromosome aberration assay. However , no signicant difference in f requencides of chromosome aberration and separation of ordinary chromosome in primary spermatocyte was observed between the t reated groups and the cont rol.

Key words: tea green pigment, mutagenicity