Toxicity Assessment of Clitocybe nuda as Natural Antimicrobials

Abstract

Clitocybe nuda is an edible mushroom which shows promise to be developed as a novel natural food antimicrobial due to various antimicrobial components found in its fruit body as well as secondary metabolites in recent years. However, no toxicity information is available about this mushroom. The aim of this study is to assess the toxicity of the fruit body and secondary metabolites from C. nuda using in vitro methods. The cytotoxic effects of its fruit body extract and secondary metabolites were investigated with an optimized cytotoxicity assay. Furthermore, acute oral LD50 values were estimated based on results from cytotoxicity assay using an established prediction model. Additionally, genotoxic effects of the fruit body extract and secondary metabolites crude extract were evaluated with two standard in vitro genotoxicity assays: a bacteria reverse mutation assay and a cytokinesis-blocked micronucleus cytome assay. Results indicate that both the fruit body extract and secondary metabolites from C. nuda can be properly classified as not genotoxic and not causing acute oral toxicity.