An ethyl acetate extract derived from the seeds of the medicinal and food plant
Casimiroa edulisinhibited mutagenicity induced by 7,12-dimethylbenz[
a]anthracene (DMBA) with
Salmonellatyphimurium strain TM677. It also showed complete inhibition of DMBA-induced preneoplasticlesions with an in vitro mouse mammary gland organ culture system at a concentration of 10
g/mL. Bioassay-guided phytochemical investigation of this extract using antimutagenicity as a monitorled to the isolation of four furocoumarins, constituted by the known compounds phellopterin (
1)and isopimpinellin (
2) and the novel compounds (
R,
S)-5-methoxy-8-[(6,7-dihydroxy-3,7-dimethyl-2-octenyl)oxy]psoralen (
3) and (
R,
S)-8-[(6,7-dihydroxy-3,7-dimethyl-2-octenyl)oxy]psoralen (
4). Fourknown
alkaloids, casimiroin (
5), 4-methoxy-1-methyl-2(1
H)-quinolinone (
6), 5-hydroxy-1-methyl-2-phenyl-4-quinolone (
7), and
-fagarine (
8), and two known flavonoids, zapotin (
9) and 5,6,2'-trimethoxyflavone (
10), were also isolated. Of these isolates, compounds
3 and
5 showed the mostpotent antimutagenic effects in the forward mutagen assay utilizing
S. typhimurium strain TM677,whereas casimiroin (
5) and 5,6,2'-trimethoxyflavone (
10) significantly inhibited the formation ofDMBA-induced preneoplastic lesions in mouse mammary gland organ culture.Keywords: Casimiroa edulis; Rutaceae; furocoumarins; (R,S)-5-methoxy-8-[(6,7-dihydroxy-3,7-dimethyl-2-octenyl)oxy]psoralen; (R,S)-8-[(6,7-dihydroxy-3,7-dimethyl-2-octenyl)oxy]psoralen;
alkaloids; flavonoids; antimutagens; mouse mammary organ culture assay; cancer chemoprevention