Mutagenicity and clastogenicity evaluation of metaphenoxy benzyl chloride by ames and micronucleus assays

Metaphenoxy Benzyl Chloride (3-PBC; CAS # 53874-66-1) is a commonly used intermediate in organic synthesis and is a widely used chemical building block. There is likelihood of human contact with 3-PBC in the process of organic or pesticide synthesis and even through as impurity in the product. Further, this chemical has been reported to be found in water reservoirs causing a threat to aqueous flaura and fauna. Genotoxic alert has been suspected for the chemical 3-PBC based on its structure hence, the impetus of present work was to assess the mutagenic potential of 3-PBC using Ames bacterial reverse-mutation assay and in vitro micronucleus assay. 3-PBC was tested for mutagenic potential at six different concentrations, with 0.05 (without metabolic activation) and 0.50 (with metabolic activation) µL/plate as the highest concentrations, followed by five lower concentrations with 2-fold spacing. In clastogenic evaluation, 3-PBC was tested at concentrations ranged from 0.31 to 4.88 µL/mL to assess micronucleus induction in mammalian cells viz. Chinese Hamster Ovarian-K1 cells (CHO-K1 cells). In the Ames assay, 3-PBC did not show mutagenicity in all five tester strains of Salmonella typhimurium viz. TA98, TA100, TA102, TA1535 and TA1537 both in the presence and absence of a metabolic activation system and found to be nonclastogenic when evaluated in "CHO-K1 cells".