Pregnancy: teratogenic effects
Momorcharins, isolated from the seeds of the crude drug have been
shown to induce early and midterm abortions in mice and were teratogenic
in cultured mouse embryos at the early organogenesis stage. Morphological
abnormalities were observed in the head, trunk and limbs of
the embryos (54, 55).
The genotoxic potential of extracts of the crude drug was assessed in
the Salmonella typhimurium microsome activation assay and the alkaline
single-cell gel electrophoresis (COMET) assay. The extract did not produce
a positive response in strains TA98 and TA100 with or without metabolic
activation, but produced an increase above negative control values
in the COMET assay (56).