Acute Toxicity and Genotoxicity Study of Water Extracts from Rosa rugosa Thunb.

Backround: Rosa rugosa Thnub. water extract (WRT) has been used as a folk medicine with various pharmacological properties for a long time in Asia. This study was conducted to evaluate the acute and genetic toxicity of WRT.<br/>Method and Result: No test substance-related deaths, clinical signs, weight changes, or macroscopic manifestations were observed in Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats or Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) mice test animals. WRT did not increase the number of revertant colonies of Salmonella typhimurium or Escherichia coli strains in the presence or absence of metabolic activity. Moreover, it did not induce structurally abnormal chromosomes in Chinese hamster lung (CHL) cells with or without metabolic activity, which did not increase by more than 2-fold compared to that in the negative controls. In the in vivo micronucleus test, WRT did not affect the formation of micronuclei compared with the the negative control.<br/>Conclusion: Acute toxicity test for WRT extract in SD rats did not reveal any clinical signs and weight loss. Ames test, in vitro mammalian chromosomal aberration, and in vivo micronucleus test did not reveal WRT genotoxicityt.