Modifications of Ames Test for Assessing the Mutagenicity of Traditional Chinese Medicines

Traditional Chinese Medicines (TCM) are histidine-containing biological samples, they are commonly orally taken in the form of water extracts. False-positive results of TCMs’ water extracts may get when using standard Ames test, therefore the interference resulted from histidine within the samples must be eliminated or reduced, and the standard Ames test needs to be modified. This mini-review summarizes the main modifications of Ames test, by providing the modification strategies and pointing out the advantages and disadvantages of their application on TCMs’ mutagenic test, and wish it giving beneficial references to the related researches in the future.