Hazard Identification of Food-Relevant Lupine Alkaloids Focusing on In Vitro Genotoxicity and Mutagenicity

Abstract

Recently, it was shown that food products made from the seeds of Lupinus species contain quinolizidine alkaloids in the range of several mg/kg. Some of these compounds are not very well characterized in regard to their toxic mechanism of action. Specifically, we identified data gaps on the genotoxicity and mutagenicity of these food contaminants, which we aimed to close. Therefore, we applied a basic test battery of in vitro assays including a bacterial reverse mutation assay and a micronucleus assay to study the genotoxic potential of the five selected lupine alkaloids angustifoline, lupanine, 13-hydroxylupanine, lupinine, and sparteine. We found that none of the compounds showed any cytotoxic, genotoxic, or mutagenic potential in vitro.