Curcumin Reduced Potato Chips and Roasted Bread Induced Chromosomal Aberrations and Micronuclei Formation in Albino Rats

Abstract

Detection of high concentrations of acrylamide (AA) in heated starch rich foodstuffs raises health concerns, particularly for children, because AA is relatively high in child-favored foods such as potato chips, French fries, roasted bread and cereals. So, we investigated the genotoxic and cytotoxic potentials of potato chips (FP) and roasted bread (RB) and the possible protective effect of curcumin (Cur) in albino rat bone-marrow cells, using chromosomal aberrations (CAs) and micronucleus (Mn-PCEs) assays. 90 adult female rats were divided into15 groups 6 animals each. Rats feed on diet contained 15 % or 30 % of fried potato chips and/or fried bread and supplemented with/without 1%curcumin addition for 2 months. Results showed that, treatment with Cur alone did not induce significant increases in CAs and Mn-PCEs in comparison to the control level. Meanwhile, diet supplemented with 30 % of FP and/or RB induced highly significant increases in CAs and Mn-PCEs frequencies (P<0.001). Moreover, fried potato chips and/or fried bread caused cytotoxic action in the form of a significant reduction in the proportion between polychromatic erythrocytes to normochromatic erythrocytes. Meanwhile, addition of 1% Cur powder induced significant decrease in CAs and Mn-PCEs frequencies in comparison to those induced by FP and/or RB alone. Such increases were dose-dependent. On conclusion, curcumin exhibited antimutagenic properties against the mutagenicity induced by FP and/or RB which make it a promising chemopreventive agent.