ABSENCE OF GENOTOXIC EFFECTS OF CURCUMA LONGA ON BONE-MARROW CELLS OF ALBINO RATS

The genotoxic effects of Curcuma longa (turmeric) rhizome powder on bone-marrow cells of Swiss albino rats were investigated for a period of four generations. It was administered orally at concentrations of 1%, 2%, 3%, 4%, 5%, and 6% of the standard diet for a period of 90 days from weaning in each generation. Male rats were sacrificied at the age of 115 days and chromosome preparations of bone-marrow cells were made. The mitotic metaphase stages were screened by employing Giemsa staining technique not only for the qualitative and quantitative analysis of chromosomal anomalies at different dose levels but also to assess the long-term administration effect of the drug from generation to generation. Statistically non-significant incidence of structural anomalies like breaks and gaps and absence of numerical anomalies like ploidy even after prolonged treatment has shown turmeric powder to be neither clastogenic nor mitoclastic.