Cytotoxic and mutagenic effects of conventionally processed foods in comparison with irradiated foods

Several kinds of spices and processed food namely onion, garlic, turmeric, red chillies, black pepper, cloves, cinnamon, simple curry, meat curry, curry prepared from irradiated onions and potatoes and curry from irradiated fish were tested for cytotoxocity and mutagenicity. Onion root tips were used in the studies of cytotoxicity. Pseudomonas fluorescens strain NCTC-9428, a streptomycin-sensitive strain, was used as the test organism in mutagenicity studies. Wide range of cytoxicity was observed in all spices and food tested, varying from 48% abnormality in root tips in black pepper to 97.7% in garlic extract. The degrees of cytotoxic abnormality of irradiated potatoes and onions appeared to be lower than in their control counterparts. The average percentages of cytotoxic abnormality in curry prepared from irradiated fish and the one prepared from irradiated potatoes and onions, at their original concentration, were 95.92% and 99.5% resp. Digesting curry prepared from irradiated potatoes and onions with bile salts appeared to show some detoxification characteristics. The mutation rate of Pseudomonas fluorescens grown in media containing unirradiated spice extract was significantly higher than in the control (media without spice extract). However, the mutation rate of an extract of irradiated onions (10 krad) showed no difference from the control. There was no difference in the mutation rate on extracts of curry prepared from irradiated onions and potatoes from the one prepared from unirradiated onions and potatoes