Abstract: Purpose : To test the antimutagenicity and anti-tumor activity of six kinds of Chinese medicinal herbs (hairyvein agrimony , hawthorn , mushroom , apricot kernel , jujube and isatis root) . Methods : The antimuta-genicity and mutagenicity of six kinds of Chinese medicinal herbs were investigated using the antimutagenicity and mutagenicity synchronous test , the anti-tumor activity of the six kinds of Chinese medicinal herbs to four kinds of tumor cells were investigated using in vit ro anti-tumor test . Results : With and without rat liver micro-somal enzymes ( S9) the tests showed that all the Chinese medicinal herbs had no mutagenicity. Mushroom、howthorn、apricot kernel and jujube were antimutagen against MMC. Four different concent ration groups of hairyvein agrimony、howthorn and mushroom ext racts all had the effect s of inhibiting the incorporation of 3 H- TdR. The inhibition had an increasing tendency with the increasing of concent ration. Conclusions : mushroom、 hawthorn 、apricot kernel and jujube have antimutagen activity , hairyvein agrimony、hawthorn and mushroom can apparently inhibit the synthesis of DNA of four kinds of tumor cells (MT2 Ⅱ, L929 , SKV20 , K562) .

Key words: Chinese medicinal herb, antimutagenicity, mutagenicity, synchronous test, anti-tumor activity