Lack of Mutagenic and Recombinogenic Activity of Betel Nut in Diploid Yeast

Mankind is exposed to a large number of chemicals many of which are mutagens and/or carcinogens. The occurrence of a strong correlation between carcinogenicity and mutagenicity of many of those chemicals lead to extensive screening in short term tests for mutagenicity. However, these tests have primarily focussed on industrial and agricultural chemicals. The naturally occurring compounds to which human population is widely exposed have not been tested extensively. An important group of natural compounds is ingested as a part of the human diet. A relationship between diet and certain cancers is known, and many plant products were mutagenic. Thus, there is a great need to test dietary components for their possible mutagenicity and/or carcinogenicity.