• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.921-927
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• 2001

This study was performed to investigated the effects on the cytotoxicity and antigenotoxicity of Cordyceps militaris extracts on the human cancer cell lines. The ethanol extract and five fractions which were hexane, chloroform, ethylacetate, butanol and aqueous were screened for crytotoxicity on human lung carcinoma(A549). human breast adenocarcinoma (MCF-7) human epitheloid carcinoma(HeLa), human fibrosarcoma(HT1080) human hepatocellular carcinoma(Hep3B), human gastric carcinoma(KATOIII) and chronic myelogenous leukemia(K562) cell by SRB and MTT assays. The results showed that growth inhibition rates of the human cancer cell in the presence of Cordyceps militaris were inhibited with increasing concentration of the extract. The ethanol extract from Cordyceps militaris had strong inhibitory effects in1 mg/mL treatment by SRB assay , showing 89.4%, 85.7%, 72.9% and 65.5% inhibition in HT1080, HeLa, Hep3B and A549, respectively. The treatment of 1 mg/mL hexane fraction by SRB assay had the strongest cytotoxicity with 97.0% on HT1080 followed by MCF-7(92.9%) and HeLA(90.3%). The inhibition ration on KATOIII by MTT assay was much higher in the butanol (83.7%) and aqueous (80.4%) than in the ethanol extract (61.5%) And also, K562 showed similar tendency with KATOIII. The effects of Cordyceps militaris extracts on the frequencies of micronucleated polychromatic erythrocytes (MNPCEs) induced by N-methyl-N-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidime(MNNG) were investigated in the bone-marrow cells of ICR male mice. The amount of 10, 20, 40 and 80 mg/kg of each extract were administered to animals immediately after injection of MNNG, and the exposure time was 36 hours. Significant reductions(p<0.05) with 39.7%, 52.7%, 71.4% and 83.9% were observed in the frequencies of MNPCE when 10, 20, 40 and 80 mg/kg of the hexane fraction of Coryceps militarus extracts were given to the mice.