The research of genetic toxicity of β-phellandrene.

β-Phellandrene, a plant extract, can be used as natural pesticides and synthetic materials. As a factor that human may be exposed to, the toxicity information about β-phellandrene is scared at present. This study focused on the genetic toxicity of β-phellandrene. The genetic toxicity of β-phellandrene was evaluated by micronucleus test, comet assay, Ames test, and chromosomal aberration test. In this study, 2850, 1425, 712.5mg/kg β-phellandrene were used in vivo experiments (comet assay and micronucleus test). For Ames test, pure β-phellandrene and different concentrations were used in the experiment. According to the results of cell viability assay (MTT test), the concentration of chromosomal aberration test was formulated. The result of comet assay showed that β-phellandrene can significantly induce DNA damage at the dosage of 1425 and 2850mg/kg. While the results of Micronucleus test and chromosome aberration test showed that β-phellandrene does not lead to apparently genetic toxicity on chromosome level. Ames tests suggest that β-phellandrene had the ability to increase gene mutation with or without S9 mixture. So, it could be drawn that β-phellandrene would have certain genetic toxicity, and the toxicity is reflected as DNA strand breaks and mutation. This study filled the lack of genetic toxicity study of β-phellandrene, and enriched information for risk assessment for β-phellandrene.