Food mutagens formed from amino acids during heating of meat have the potential to induce serious consequences on human health. As a result, the identification of naturally occurring, genoprotective agents, is of great importance. The aim of this study was to chemically characterize a root and leaf extracts of Gentiana lutea and to investigate the antigenotoxic effects of extracts and pure constituents (gentiopicroside and mangiferin). Antigenotoxic effects were shown for combinations with the food borne mutagens IQ and PhIP using hepatoma HepG2 cells. Furthermore, their antioxidant activity and their capacity to modulate Nrf2 expression and affect the glutathione redox status were tested. Chemical analyses showed that the most abundant constituents found in root extract are gentiopicroside and sweroside. On the other hand, homoorientin and isovitexin were the dominant ones in leaf extract. Strong genoprotective activities of all tested compounds against both mutagens were observed in alkaline comet assays (up to 77% of tail intensity inhibition, p < 0.001). The protection against glutathione depletion was partially due to the radical scavenging activity and up-regulation of Nrf2 expression by the substances. The results of this study strongly encourage further investigations of the antimutagenic properties of G. lutea.

在肉类加热过程中由氨基酸形成的食物诱变剂有可能对人类健康造成严重后果。因此，鉴定天然存在的基因保护剂非常重要。本研究的目的是对黄龙胆的根和叶提取物进行化学表征并研究提取物和纯成分（龙胆苦苷和芒果苷）的抗原毒性作用。使用肝癌 HepG2 细胞与食源性诱变剂 IQ​​ 和 PhIP 组合显示出抗基因毒性作用。此外，还测试了它们的抗氧化活性和调节 Nrf2 表达和影响谷胱甘肽氧化还原状态的能力。化学分析表明，在根提取物中发现的最丰富的成分是龙胆苦苷和猪脑苷。另一方面，homoorientin 和isovitexin 是叶提取物中的主要成分。在碱性彗星试验中观察到所有测试化合物对两种诱变剂的强基因保护活性（高达 77% 的尾部强度抑制，p < 0.001）。对谷胱甘肽消耗的保护部分是由于这些物质的自由基清除活性和 Nrf2 表达的上调。这项研究的结果强烈鼓励进一步研究抗诱变特性G. 黄体。