Antigenotoxic effect of some lichen metabolites

Abstract

Naturally occurring compounds can have protective effects towards mutagens and carcinogens as shown by numerous studies. Several lichen species have taken quite much the attention of researchers since their extracts and compounds have been used on traditional medicine to cure different diseases such as ulcer, arthritis, tuberculosis and cancer throughout the ages. Although a wide variety of scientific investigations on the biological activities of lichen extracts and their constituent have been performed, there are quite less research on their genotoxicity/antigenotoxic activity. Up to date, most results for genotoxic/antigenotoxic activities of lichens have been obtained for lichen extracts using the Ames/Salmonella/microsome, the Escherichia coli WP2 microsome, chromosome aberration, micronucleus, sister chromatid exchange and the single-cell gel electrophoresis assays. In the present chapter, findings on the antigenotoxic/genotoxic activities and its mechanisms will be evaluated. By using the most common bacterial and nonbacterial assays, extracts of various lichen species have been shown to have promising antigenotoxic activity with quite less genotoxic activity. Lichen extracts may have a possible therapeutic potential and therefore this must be further investigated by other multiple in vitro bioassays for the development of therapeutic agents.