Abstract

Mitragyna speciosa Korth (Ketum) is a medicinal plant that has been used traditionally to enhance energy, cure illnesses, fever and diarrhea. Aqueous extract of M. speciosa was screened for the potential of mutagenic and antimutagenic activity using Ames test (Salmonella/microsome mutagenicity assay). Ames test involved the pre-incubation assay against Salmonella typhimurium TA 98 and TA 100 bacterial strains in the presence and absence of metabolic activator S9 system. Every extract was evaluated using two-fold value of the number of revertant’s colony in negative control plate as cut-off point, to determine the mutagenicity effects. No mutagenic activity was found for frameshift mutation (TA98) and base-pair substitution (TA100) in all concentrations of M. speciosa in the presence and absence of metabolic activator S9 system. Inhibition percentage of revertant’s colony was used to evaluate the antimutagenic activity of M. speciosa aqueous extract by simultaneous addition of mutagen. Significant antimutagenic activity (p<0.001) were observed in three concentrations of M. speciosa as compared to mutagenicity induced by 2-aminoanthracene for both TA 98 and TA 100 strain with the presence of metabolic activator S9 system. In conclusion, M. speciosa did not show any mutagenicity effects in both tester strains in the presence and absence of metabolic activator S9 system. However, M. speciosa showed strong antimutagenicity properties in both strains with the presence of metabolic activator S9 system.

Key words: Mitragyna speciosa Korth, mutagenic, antimutagenic, Ames test.