Several
antioxidant food additives are added to
oils, soups, sauces,
chewing gum, potato chips, and so on. One of them is
octyl gallate. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the potential genotoxicity of
octyl gallate in human lymphocytes, using in vitro
chromosomal abnormalities (CA), sister chromatid exchange (SCE), cytokinesis block micronucleus cytome (CBMN-Cyt), micronucleus-FISH (MN-FISH), and comet tests. Different concentrations (0.031, 0.063, 0.125, 0.25, and 0.50 μg/ml) of
octyl gallate were used. A negative (distilled water), a positive (0.20 μg/ml
Mitomycin-C), and a
solvent control (8.77 μl/ml
ethanol) were also applied for each treatment.
Octyl gallate did not cause changes in
chromosomal abnormalities, micronucleus, nuclear bud (NBUD), and nucleoplasmic bridge (
NPB) frequency. Similarly, there was no significant difference in DNA damage (comet assay), percentage of centromere positive and negative cells (MN-FISH test) compared to the
solvent control. Moreover,
octyl gallate did not affect replication and nuclear division index. On the other hand, it significantly increased the SCE/cell ratio in three highest concentrations compared to
solvent control at 24 h treatment. Similarly, at 48 h treatment, the frequency of SCE raised significantly compared to
solvent controls at all the concentrations (except 0.031 μg/ml). An important reduction was detected in mitotic index values in the highest concentration at 24 h treatment and almost all concentrations (except 0.031 and 0.063 µg/ml) at 48 h treatment. The results obtained suggest that
octyl gallate has no important genotoxicological action on human peripheral lymphocytes at the concentrations applied in this study.