Preliminary Study of Embryotoxicity and Potential Teratogenicity of (-)-Epicatechin and (+)-Catechin (CHEST)

Karel Kosař¹, Lubomír Opletal² (opletal@faf.cuni.cz), Marie Sovová², Luděk Jahodář², Christopher G. Dacke³, Gerald Blunden³, Asmita Patel³

¹Department of Biological and Medical Sciences and
²Department of Pharmaceutical Botany and Ecology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Charles University, Hradec Králové, Czech Republic
³School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Science, University of Portsmouth, St Michael’s Building, White Swan Road, Portsmouth, Hants PO1 2DT, UK

Summary

This paper deals with preliminary study of embryotoxicity and potential teratogenicity studies of (-)-epicatechin and (+)-catechin by CHEST (Chick Embryotoxicity Screening Test). It has been found, that these diastereoisomeric compounds do not produce interference with the embryonal developmental processes in doses of order 10^-3 M and lower. In contrast, positive controls triamcinolone acetonide (TA) and cyclo(glycyl-L-leucyl) (CGL) are embryotoxic and teratogenic in the same concentrantion (10^-3 M and lower).