ORIGINAL PAPER Influence of Marolo (Annona crassiflora Mart.) Pulp Intake on the Modulation of Mutagenic/Antimutagenic Processes and Its Action on Oxidative Stress In Vivo Nathalia Romanelli Vicente Dragano & Vinicius Paula de Venancio & Fernanda Borges de Araújo Paula & Flávia Della Lucia & Marcos José de Oliveira Fonseca & Luciana Azevedo Published online: 28 September 2010 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010 Abstract Brazilian savanna constitutes a valuable ecoregion that contributes to the supply of fruit known worldwide for its nutritional value and peculiar flavors. Among them, the Marolo (Annona crassiflora Mart.) fruit is known for its use in folk medicine. In order to establish the safety of Marolo for human consumption, this study evaluated the following: the chemical composition of Marolo pulp; its mutagenic and antimutagenic activities using micronucleus test; and the oxidative stress induced in the livers of mice fed a diet containing 1%, 10% or 20% pulp. It was observed that the chemical composition of marolo pulp was similar to that of common fruit; nevertheless, its lipidic content and energetic values were higher. In the mice fed experimental diets, the biochemical parameters of the blood serum showed normal levels of glucose, triglycerides, and cholesterol. The micro- nucleus test indicated neither mutagenic nor antimutagenic effects of Marolo consumption on bone marrow cells but showed potentialization of cyclophosphamide (CP). The oxidative stress levels observed indicated that CP was not exerting a great influence on the induction of reactive oxygen species. As the whole fruit is a complex matrix, the interactions between its components could be responsible for its negative and positive biological effects. Keywords Annona crassiflora . Antimutagenicity . Chemical composition . Cyclophosphamide . Marolo . Mutagenicity Abbreviations AOAC Association of Official Analytical Chemists bw body weight CD Commercial diet CP Cyclophosphamide EMBRAPA-CTAA Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária Agroindústria de Alimentos HDL High density lipoprotein IAL Instituto Adolfo Lutz ICP-AES Inductively Coupled Plasma— Atomic Emission Spectrometry N. R. V. Dragano : V. P. de Venancio : F. Della Lucia : L. Azevedo Departamento de Nutrição, Universidade Federal de Alfenas, Unifal-MG, Alfenas, MG, Brazil N. R. V. Dragano e-mail: nathdragano@hotmail.com V. P. de Venancio e-mail: venancio.vinicius@gmail.com F. Della Lucia e-mail: flavia@unifal-mg.edu.br F. B. A. Paula Departamento de Análises Clínicas e Toxicológicas, Universidade Federal de Alfenas, Unifal-MG, Alfenas, MG, Brazil e-mail: fernanda@unifal-mg.edu.br M. J. O. Fonseca Embrapa Agroindústria de Alimentos, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil e-mail: mfonseca@ctaa.embrapa.br L. Azevedo (*) Departamento de Nutrição, Universidade Federal de Alfenas – UNIFAL-MG, Rua Gabriel Monteiro da Silva, 700, CEP: 37130-000 Alfenas, Brazil e-mail: luciana.azevedo@unifal-mg.edu.br Plant Foods Hum Nutr (2010) 65:319–325 DOI 10.1007/s11130-010-0191-3