Genotoxicity and antioxidant activity of five Agrimonia and Filipendula species plant extracts evaluated by comet and micronucleus assays in human lymphocytes and Ames Salmonella/microsome test

The species of Agrimonia and Filipendula have been traditionally used in folk medicine as anti-inflammatory herbs. This study extends the knowledge on bioactivities of F. palmata, A. eupatoria, A. procera, F. ulmaria and F. vulgaris by comprehensive characterization of their methanolic extracts. Antioxidant properties of extracts were evaluated by DPPH• (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl), ABTS•+ 2,2′-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulphonic acid) scavenging and oxygen radical absorbance capacities (ORAC). Genotoxicity of extracts was tested using alkaline single-cell gel electrophoresis (comet) and cytokinesis-block micronucleus assays in human lymphocytes in vitro and the Ames Salmonella/microsome test. All investigated Agrimonia and Filipendula extracts possessed strong antioxidant activity, which was comparable with that of a standard antioxidant trolox (6-hydroxy-2,5,7,8-tetramethylchroman-2-carboxylic acid). Thirty five compounds belonging to the classes of phenolic acids, flavonoids, phenylpropanoids and ellagitanins were detected by ultra-performance liquid chromatography – mass spectrometry (UPLC-Q-TOF-MS). Agrimonia and Filipendula extracts induced an increase in a DNA damage in the comet assay expressed as mean percentage of DNA in the comet tail. However, these extracts did not produce reverse mutation in bacterial cells in the Ames test and were not genotoxic in the micronucleus test. However, a slight though significant decrease of nuclear division index values was determined. In general, this study proved that Agrimonia and Filipendula species are a good source of bioactive compounds; their extracts may be classified as non-mutagenic and non-clastogenic in vitro under conditions of the current study. Consequently, the plants may be a promising material for nutraceuticals and natural medicines.