Amelioration of the cyclophosphamide induced genotoxic damage in mice by the ethanolic extract of Equisetum arvense

•Plants like E. arvense posess not only nutritional value but therapeutic value as well.•CPA is an important chemotherapeutic agent but is associated with various mutagenic and other toxic side effects.•Ethanolic extract of the plant has immense protective effect against the genotoxic damage induced by the cyclophosphamide.•GC-MS analysis of the extract shows various important phyto components which may be associated with its antimutagenic property.•Plant can be used in cancer as a chemopreventive agent or even as a coadjuvant to chemotherapy to reduce the side effects associated with it.

In the present study, we evaluated the potential of the plant E. arvense against the cytotoxic and mutagenic effects induced by cyclophosphamide (chemotherapeutic agent) in the bone marrow cells of mice using the Chromosome assay (CA) and Mitotic index (MI) in vivo as the biomarkers. The study was performed following 3 protocols: pre-treatment, simultaneous treatment and post-treatment with the ethanolic extract of the plant. The results demonstrated that the plant extract was not cytotoxic and mutagenic and has a protective effect against the mutagenicity induced by cyclophosphamide in pre, simultaneous and post treatments and against its cytotoxicity as well. Because of its ability to prevent chromosomal damage, E. arvense is likely to open an interesting field concerning its possible use in clinical applications, most importantly in cancer as a chemopreventive agent or even as a coadjuvant to chemotherapy to reduce the side effects associated with it.

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