Antigenotoxic potential of gel extract of Aloe vera against Sodium azide genotoxicity in Allium cepa cells: Antigenotoxicity of Aloe vera gel extract

Nowadays, the increasing rate of human exposure to various kinds of environmental mutagens has necessitated the search for natural antimutagens /antigenotoxic agents in natural products. In this study, Aloe vera gel extract was tested for its possible antigenotoxicity following the Allium cepa assay. Ten onions (Allium cepa) per dose were grown for 48 and 72 hours on gel extract of A. vera at 6.25%, 12.5%, 25.0%, 50.0% and 100.0% in combination with sodium azide (0.05mg/ml) solution for microscopic and macroscopic evaluations, respectively. Distilled water and sodium azide were the negative and positive controls, respectively. The cell division in the root tips, and root growth in the exposed A. cepa were inhibited in a dose dependent manner by the mixture of A. vera and sodium azide. However, the mixture of absolute (100.0%) dose and sodium azide completely arrested cell division and induced a lower root length than that recorded for sodium azide alone. The genotoxicity of sodium azide was inversely reduced by the doses of A. vera except at 100.0%. These results show that gel extract of A. vera possesses strong antigenotoxic /antimutagenic potency at lower dose range of 6.25% to 25.0% in A. cepa cells, however, its higher doses above 50.0% to 100.0% could be severely toxic when being considered for suppression of environmental mutagens’ mutagenicity or genotoxicity. This suggests that gel extract of A. vera contains phytochemical(s) that can be useful in the development of anticancer drug