Abstract: BACKGROUND ＆ AIM: To study the toxicity attenuation and antimutagenic effects of health-preserving cigarettes made from Chinese herbal medicine. MATERLALS AND METHODS: The health-preserving cigarettes were made by certain Chinese herbal medicine such as piper sarmentosum Roxb. We made these cigarettes into a smoke liquid of normal saline solution as an experimental material to do an acute toxicity test in mice.A micronucleus test of mice bone marrow polychromatophilic erythroblast(PCE) and an Ames test were performed. RESULTS: The LD50 of mice in the acute toxicity test was four to five times more than the control group. The micronucleus test of PCE in the mice bone marrow was 6‰～10‰, obviously lower than the original control group(16‰～28‰) with a dose-effect relationship(r=0.9554). In the Ames test，the number of the bacterial mutagenesis could be reduced 69％～83％ of that in the control group,also with a dose-effect relationship(r=0.9843). CONCLUSION: Health-preserving cigarettes made from Chinese herbal medicine could greatly lower the toxicity of cigarettes，and have obvious antimutagenic effect.

Key words: Chinese herbal medicine, piper sarmentosum Roxb., health-preserving cigarettes, antimutagenicity