The present study was performed as part of an attempt to authenticate the use of Inula racemosa root extract as traditional medicine in India by experimentally investigating their protective effects on 4-nitroquinoline-1-oxide (4-NQO) induced DNA damage and apoptosis in mice bone marrow cells. Aqueous root extract (ARE) of Inula racemosa (100, 200 and 400？mg/kg bw) with and without 4-NQO along with vehicle control (H2O) were administered orally for five consecutive days. 4-NQO (7.5？mg/kg？bw) was injected intraperitoneally to the mice on the sixth day. After 24？h, the animals were sacrificed and extracted bone marrow cells were used for micronuclei and apoptotic analysis. Antiapoptotic effect of ARE (400？mg/kg？bw) was measured by the use of Annexin V-FITC assay kit. 4-NQO generated the frequency of micronucleated polychromatic erythrocytes (MnPCEs) by about 4.7 times the control value, 14.29？MnPCEs/2500？PCEs. Pretreatment with ARE significantly reduced the MnPCEs frequency (39–72%) with respect to their doses, and increased PCEs/NCEs ratio was observed over the 4-NQO alone. 4-NQO-induced total apoptotic cells were about 12% over the control which was significantly brought down to 3.5% by pretreatment with 400？mg/kg？bw of ARE. This was the first report that recorded the protective effects of I. racemosa on 4-NQO-induced DNA damage and apoptosis in mice bone marrow cells. 1. Introduction Recently, the scientific interest is to develop potential drugs of plant origin for elimination of various diseases including cancer induced by mutagens/carcinogens. It is known that mutations in somatic cells play a key role in cancer initiation and carcinogenesis process [1]. A large number of mutagens have been identified and are known to be potentially deleterious to human health. It is essential to identify bioactive compounds from plants to eliminate these diseases due to human exposure of different environmental mutagens/carcinogens [2, 3]. Many plant extracts have been used as herbal drugs for various toxin-induced diseases in mammals. These drugs have an advantage over the synthetic drugs in terms of low or no toxicity at the effective dose [4]. Medicinal plants are also considered to be dietary substances due to their essential bioactive compounds like vitamin, carotenoids, phenolics, flavonoids, glycosides, organic acids, sterols, some essential oils, and so forth [5]. Therefore, the present study was performed as part of an attempt to authenticate the use of Inula racemosa root extract as a traditional medicine in India by investigating their biological
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