Evaluation of Safety with Astragali Radix : Ames, Rec and umu Assays

Ames, Rec 및 umu Assay를 이용한 황기의 안전성평가

Water extract from Astragali Radix (AR) was tested for the safety using Ames, Bacillus subtilis Rec, and umu gene expression mutagenicity tests. Mutagenic activity in any assays we tested was not found. In Ames test, Salmonella typhimurium TA98 and TA 100 were used to identify mutagenic property, and the number of histidine revertants was measured. In the Recassay, Bacillus subtilis ${H-17(Rec^+)\;and\;M-45(Rec^-)}$ strains were used to test DNA damage activity. In the SOS umu test, Salmonella typhimurium TA1535 containing plasmid pSK1002 was used as a test strain, and we monitored the levels of umu operon expression by measuring the ${\beta}-galactosidase$ activity. From the results, there was no DNA damage and mutagenicity of AR. Hepatotoxicity of AR to female ICR mice was also monitored by the measurements of s-GOT, s-GPT, LDH activities after oral feeding for 15 days. AR was not shown any significant changes of s-GOT, s-GPT and LDH activities in mice sera.