Pak. J. Pharm. Sci., Vol.27, No.4, July 2014, pp.893-899 893 In vitro antimutagenic, antioxidant activities and total phenolics of clove (Syzygium aromaticum L.) seed extracts Bushra Sultana 1 *, Farooq Anwar* 2 , Muhammad Mushtaq 1 , Maryam Aslam 1 and Sidra Ijaz 1 1 Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan 2 Department of Chemistry, University of Sargodha, Sargodha, Pakistan Abstract: The present work explores antimutagenic and antioxidant potential as well as total phenolics of aqueous and acidified methanol extractable components from clove (Syzygium aromaticum L.) seed. The magnitude of antimutagenic activity of clove seed extracts (CSE) against two mutant bacterial strains: S. typhimurium TA98 and S. typhimurium TA100 (Ames bacterial test) ranged from 34.11-79.74%. Antioxidant activity in terms of measurement of DPPH radical scavenging capacity and inhibition of linoleic acid peroxidation was noted to be 71.16-94.58% and 54.96-86.89%, respectively. CSE also exhibited an appreciable amount of total phenolics with contribution between 22.80 and 115.33 GAE mg/100g. A strong correlation between total phenolics and tested biological activities were recorded. The results of this study advocate that clove seed can be explored as a viable source of bioactives for the development of chemotherapeutic drugs against cancer in addition to acting as nutraceutical and functional food ingredient. Keywords: Clove seed, effective extraction, TPC, antimutagenic potential, radical scavenging. INTRODUCTION Nature has blessed us with wide array of medicinally and/ or economically important flora providing food, feed and phytomedice (Biglari et al., 2008; Dawara et al., 2012). Medicinal plants are of great value due to their potential uses as ingredients of folk medicine and functional foods (Giorgi et al., 2009; Siahsar et al., 2011). The multifarious physiological functions of medicinal plants might be attributed to the presence of bioactives and natural antioxidants e.g. polyphenols having multiple biological activities (Pandey et al., 2006; Adnan et al., 2010; DeGrandi-Hoffman et al., 2010). Clove (Syzygium aromaticum L.) belonging to family Myrtaceae, is an evergreen plant with height ranging from 8-12 m, large square leaves and sanguine flowers in numerous groups of terminal clusters. Cloves, the dried flower buds of S. aromaticum, have been used as a spice in cuisines all over the world. More importantly these have been employed as folk medicine over the centuries to treat indigestion, atherosclerotic, asthma, cough, skin disorders, headache, tooth infections and gum disease, acne, wounds, scabies, insect bites and male sexual disorders (Shukri et al., 2005; Nassar, 2006; Santoro et al., 2007; Saeed and Tariq, 2008; Jin and Cho, 2011; Pawar and Patil, 2011; Mushtaq et al., 2012). The most frequently reported biological activities such as antimicrobial (Giordani et al., 2004; Pawar and Thaker, 2006; Karuppiah and Rajaram, 2012), anti-inflammatory (Park et al., 2007), antioxidant (Kim et al., 1998), antiulcerogenic (Bae et al., 1998; Chaie et al., 2007), antithrombotic (Li et al., 2005), antiparasitic (Srivastava and Malhotra, 1991), antiseptic, antispasmodic, carminative, expectorant, germicidal, rubefacient, stomachic and stimulant of clove are ascribed to the presence of biologically active constituents (Yang et al., 2003; Cai and Wu, 1996; Arina and Iqbal, 2002; Lopez et al., 2005; Betoniet al., 2006; Chaieb et al., 2007). Recently, an extensive research is being focussed on extraction and isolation of natural dietary antioxidant components, especially plant polyphenols for the development of chemo preventive drugs, anticancer agents, and other nutraceuticals to supplement and fortify the physiological defence mechanisms of human body (Fu et al., 2007; Yoshimura et al., 2011). The yield of bioactive extracts and their in vitro or in vivo biological activities is influenced by the choice of extraction solvent (Siddhuraju and Becker, 2003; Sultana et al., 2007). Thus, it would be important to investigate antimutagenic and antioxidant potential as well as total phenolic contents of clove seeds as a function of different extraction media so as to explore their potential therapeutic and functional food uses on scientific basis. MATERIALS AND METHODS Collection of sample The seeds of clove (S. aromaticum L.) were purchased from the local market of Faisalabad, Pakistan. Mature and healthy clove seeds were screened, air-dried, and ground into a fine powder using a commercial grinder. The material that passed through 100-mesh sieve was used for extraction purposes. *Corresponding authors: e-mail: bushrasultana2005@yahoo.com, fqanwar@yahoo.com