RESEARCH ARTICLE Genotoxic and Antigenotoxic Assessment of Chios Mastic Oil by the In VitroMicronucleus Test on Human Lymphocytes and the In Vivo Wing Somatic Test on Drosophila

Chios mastic oil (CMO), the essential oil derived from Pistacia lentiscus (L.) var. chia (Duham), has generated considerable interest because of its antimicrobial, anticancer, anti-oxidant and other beneficial properties. In the present study, the potential genotoxic activity of CMO as well as its antigenotoxic properties against the mutagenic agent mitomycin-C (MMC) were evaluated by employing the in vitro Cytokinesis Block MicroNucleus (CBMN) assay and the in vivo Somatic Mutation And Recombination Test (SMART). In the in vitro experiments, lymphocytes were treated with 0.01, 0.05 and 0.10 % (v/v) of CMOwith or without 0.05 μg/ml MMC, while in the in vivo assay Drosophila larvae were fed with 0.05, 0.10, 0.50 and 1.00% (v/v) of CMOwith or without 2.50 μg/ml MMC. CMO did not significantly increase the fre-quency of micronuclei (MN) or total wing spots, indicating lack of mutagenic or recombino-genic activity. However, the in vitro analysis suggested cytotoxic activity of CMO. The simultaneous administration of MMCwith CMO did not alter considerably the frequencies of MMC-induced MN and wing spots showing that CMO doesn’t exert antigenotoxic or antire-combinogenic action. Therefore, CMO could be considered as a safe product in terms of gen-otoxic potential. Even though it could not afford any protection against DNA damage, at least under our experimental conditions, its cytotoxic potential could be of interest