Mutagenicity of the two main components of commercially available carcinogenic aristolochic acid in Salmonella typhimurium.

One of the 2 main components of the commercially available carcinogenic aristolochic acid (AA) was isolated, the other was enriched. Three different aristolochic acid samples (AAI 99% pure; AAI 65% + AAII 35%; AAI 32% + AAII 68%) were assayed for mutagenic activity in Salmonella typhimurium TA1537, TA100 and TA100 NR with and without the addition of a metabolizing mixture. The two main components (AAI and AAII) were direct mutagens in Salmonella strains TA1537 and TA100 with almost equal mutagenic potency. In TA100 NR the aristolochic acid samples showed no or only a very low level of biological activity, indicating the necessity of nitroreduction for the bioactivation of the samples. These findings suggest that both AAI as well as AAII can be used in further studies to elucidate the metabolism of aristolochic acid.