Study of genotoxic, antigenotoxic and antioxidant activities of the digallic acid isolated from Pistacia lentiscus fruits.

The digallic acid obtained from the fruit Pistacia lentiscus exhibits an inhibitory activity against nitrofurantoine and B[a]P induced genotoxicity when tested by the SOS chromotest bacterial assay system in the presence of Escherichia coli PQ37 strain. The antioxidant activity of the tested compound was determined by its ability to scavenge the free radical ABTS(+), to inhibit the xanthine oxidase, involved in the generation of free radicals, and to inhibit the lipid peroxidation induced by H(2)O(2) in the K562 cell line. Our results revealed that digallic acid shows an important free radical scavenging activity towards the ABTS(+) radical (99%) and protection against lipid peroxidation (68%).