In vitro evaluation of Rheum ribes induced genotoxicity in HepG2 cell lines

Rheum ribes is a perennial herbaceous plant belonging to the Polygonaceae family that grows more in rocky and gravelly slopes in high altitude areas of Levant and Turkey. Rheum ribes is consumed as food and widely used in folk medicine against nausea, constipation and for different diseases including diabetesand hypertension. Unfortunately, the researches on Rheum ribes toxicity are insufficient. In our study, human hepatocellular carcinoma (HepG2) cell line was used in cytotoxicity evaluation of Rheum ribes water, methanol and chloroform extracts by MTT and NRU test. Comet assay was used to investigate the genotoxicity potentials of the plant extracts. Our results show that all extracts cause cell death in a concentration dependent manner at 5-50 mg/mL concentrations. The IC50 values are 14.29- 31.94 mg/mL by MTT and 21.15 - 27.66 mg/mL by NRU assay. The highest concentration (25 mg/mL) of methanol extract causes a significant DNA damage (8.7-folds). In conclusion, similar to a lot of plants used in the folk medicine the risk of Rheum ribes is still unknown. The uncontrolled use of this plant could harm to the patients. Our results indicate possible cyto- and gentoxicity effects of Rheum ribes, these results should rise the concerns about the safety of Rheum ribes and other folk herbs. Cite this article as : Abudayyak M (2019). In vitro evaluation of Rheum ribes induced genotoxicity in HepG2 cell lines. Istanbul J Pharm 10.26650/IstanbulJPharm.2019.19021.