Origanum majoranaEssential Oil Lacks Mutagenic Activity in theSalmonella/Microsome and Micronucleus Assays

Abstract

The present study aimed to investigate thein vitromutagenic activity ofOriganum majoranaessential oil. The most abundant compounds identified by GC-MS wereγ-terpinene (25.73%),α-terpinene (17.35%), terpinen-4-ol (17.24%), and sabinene (10.8%). Mutagenicity was evaluated by theSalmonella/microsome test using the preincubation procedure on TA98, TA97a, TA100, TA102, and TA1535Salmonella typhimuriumstrains, in the absence or in the presence of metabolic activation. Cytotoxicity was detected at concentrations higher than 0.04 μL/plate in the absence of S9 mix and higher than 0.08 μL/plate in the presence of S9 mix and no gene mutation increase was observed. For thein vitromammalian cell micronucleus test, V79 Chinese hamster lung fibroblasts were used. Cytotoxicity was only observed at concentrations higher than or equal to 0.05 μg/mL. Moreover, when tested in noncytotoxic concentrations,O. majoranaessential oil was not able to induce chromosome mutation. The results from this study therefore suggest thatO. majoranaessential oil is not mutagenic at the concentrations tested in theSalmonella/microsome and micronucleus assays.