Antioxidant properties of beta-carboline alkaloids are related to their antimutagenic and antigenotoxic activities.

The beta-carboline alkaloids found in medical plants and in a variety of foods, beverages and cigarette smoke have a range of action in various biological systems. In vitro studies have demonstrated that these alkaloids can act as scavengers of reactive oxygen species. In this paper, we report the in vivo antioxidative properties of the aromatic (harmane, harmine, harmol) and dihydro-beta-carbolines (harmaline and harmalol) studied by using Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains proficient and deficient in antioxidant defenses.

Effects of beta-carboline alkaloids on the object recognition task in mice.

beta-carboline alkaloids are found in several medicinal plants and display a variety of actions on the central nervous, muscular and cardiovascular systems. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effects of systemic administration of beta-carboline alkaloids on object recognition in mice. Adult Swiss mice received an intra-peritoneal injection (i.

Genotoxic and recombinogenic activities of the two beta-carboline alkaloids harman and harmine in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

The cytotoxical beta-carboline alkaloids harman and harmine occur in medical plants and in a variety of foods, alcoholic beverages, and industrial waste. We applied them to the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae to test for putative genotoxicity, mutagenicity and recombinogenicity and to determine whether harman and harmine produced repairable DNA damage. Harmine was more cytotoxic than harman for exponentially growing haploid and diploid cells.