Toxicity and mutagenic activity of benzophenone isolated from Garcinia brasiliensis fruit in healthy and Schistosoma mansoni infected mice

Abstract

7-epiclusianone (7-epi), a benzophenone isolated from fruits of Garcinia brasiliensis, presents remarkable biological activities as the schistosomicidal. However, there is a need to evaluate the toxic effects of 7-epi by analyzing liver function markers (aspartate-aminotransferase, alanine-aminotransferase, albumin, total proteins, and glucose) and a renal marker (creatinine), and beside that also comet (COM), micronucleus (MN), apoptosis (APOP), and histopathological in vivo analyzes. Although 7-epi at doses of 100.0 and 300.0 mg/kg (for five consecutive days) did not cause biochemical alterations to the male swiss mice (8 weeks old), it was not able to mitigate the damage caused by S. mansoni eggs. In the COM, MN, and APOP assays with marrow and the colon, 7-epi at doses of 10.0, 50.0, and 100.0 mg/kg (for fourteen consecutive days) caused no damage to the DNA and was able to protect the cell from damage caused by doxorubicin (16.0 mg/kg) and N, N’-dimethylhydrazine (30.0 mg/kg) both by peritoneal route for fourteen days. In the histopathological exams, the liver showed no changes in the dose of 100.0 mg/kg of 7-epi, however, some changes were observed in the 300.0 mg/kg dose. The results obtained in these experiments reveal that 7-epi can be used safely for the treatment of murine experimental schistosomiasis.