Clavine alkaloids and derivatives as mutagens detected in the Ames test.

Eight cytostatic clavines were investigated for mutagenicity in Salmonella typhimurium (reversion of the his-strains TA98, TA100, TA102 and TA1537), directly and in the presence of a mammalian xenobiotic metabolizing system, S9 (NADPH-fortified postmitochondrial fraction of liver homogenate from Aroclor 1254-treated rats). Four compounds (festuclavine, 17-bromofestuclavine, 1-allylelymoclavine and 1-methyllysergol methyl ether) were direct mutagens, whose activity was enhanced in the presence of S9. The other compounds (1-cyclopentylfestuclavine, 13-bromo-1-cyclopropylmethylfestuclavine, 6-cyano-1-propyl-6-norfestuclavine and 6-allyl-1-propyl-6-norfestuclavine) showed mutagenic effects only…