Abstract
Iron poisoning is an iron overload caused by an excess of iron intake and usually refers to an acute overload which promotes deleterious effect at cellular and tissue levels, leading to the cell death, tissue necrosis and degenerative diseases or cell phenotype changes and cancer formation. Iron catalyzes generation of hydroxyl radicals which intensify oxidative stress. To ameliorate such damaging effects several natural and herbal products including thymoquinone, the main bioactive compound of the volatile oil of Nigella sativa have been evaluated in the recent past. To further evaluate the ameliorative property of thymoquinone against genotoxicity induced by iron, thymoquinone was injected with increasing doses (6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21 and 24 mg/kg) by intraperitoneal route to Wistar rats along with high dose of iron (200 mg Fe/kg) orally. Bone marrow chromosomal aberrations assay, micronucleus assay and alkaline version of the comet assay were done to assess the DNA damage, served as endpoints of genotoxicity. The study revealed significant anti genotoxic effects during simultaneous treatment of thymoquinone with iron sulfate and the best response was observed at the dose of 18 mg/kg. The study confirms the antioxidant and ameliorative properties of thymoquinone.