Abstract: BACKGROUND ＆ AIM:To study the mutagenicity of Fructus Aristolochiae (FA) alone and compounded with Long Dan Xie Gan Wan (LDXGW) using Ames test and mouse lymphoma assay. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Ames test was conducted to determine whether FA and LDXGW ,which contained AA at the concentration of 20 μg/ml, would cause mutagenic changes in the average number of revertants for TA97,TA98,TA100 and TA102. L5178Y/tk(＋/－) －3.7.2C_cells were treated with FA and LDXGE at a concentration of 5 μg/ml by the 96_well microwell method. The plating efficiency (PE), relative total growth (RTG) and the mutant frequency (MF) were determined by the microtiter procedure. RESELTS: FA and LDXGE were considered to be nonmutagenic to Salmonella typhimurium tester strains TA97, TA98, TA100 and TA102 in Ames test. FA was characterized by marked cytotoxicity and mutagenic activity. However LDXGW showed that cytotoxicity and mutagenic activity were largely reduced when made into a compound. CONCLUSION: FA had certain cytotoxicity and mutagenicity while LDXGE could reduce the mutation of tk gene.

Key words: Fructus Aristolochiae, Ames test, mouse lymphoma assay, tk gene mutation, mutagenicity