Quercetin is a widely distributed plant
flavonoid possessing a variety of chemical and
biological activities, including chelation,
free-radical scavenging, and
antioxidant activity.
Atrazine is a selective
triazine herbicide that has been the subject of an international revision program for human and ecological health risks because of its persistence in the environment. In a previous study, we demonstrated that
atrazine was clastogenic in the Allium cepa test. In this present study, we investigated whether
quercetin affords protection from the
chromosome breaks induced by
atrazine. In a preliminary assay, 0.1-20 microg/ml
quercetin produced no toxicity or clastogenic activity in the Allium cepa test. Subsequently, we evaluated the effects of 0.5 and 5 microg/ml
quercetin on the clastogenicity of 2.5, 5.0, and 7.5 microg/l
atrazine.
Quercetin (0.5 microg/ml) significantly reduced the frequency of total aberrations induced by 7.5 microg/l
atrazine, while both concentrations of
quercetin significantly decreased the frequency of fragments induced by 7.5 microg/l
atrazine. The results of this study indicate that plant
flavonoids such as
quercetin may protect against the genotoxic effects of
atrazine. Efforts to understand the extent to which plant
flavonoids influence the
biological activities of genotoxicants and the mechanisms involved in the interactions could help to better discern the advantages and disadvantages of their use and to clarify their possible protective role against
pollutants.