Ferula assafoetida latex can cause damage to bacterial DNA

Asafoetida is the dried latex exuded from the living underground rhizome or tap root of Ferula assafoetida. Antibacterial characteristic of asafoetida was shown using the circular zone diameter of bacterial growth inhibition by disk-diffusion method on two gram positive and three gram negative bacteria. Then, the bacterial genomic DNA damage, induced by F. assafoetida latex, was demonstrated using the comparison of random amplification of polymorphic DNA profiles generated by polymerase chain reaction of control and treated bacterial genomes. The results showed that the number of primers that produced bands in each bacterium were higher in control samples compared to those treated with asafoetida. This and the absence or presence of bands between controls and treatments confirm rearrangements and DNA damage in the priming binding sites of bacterial genome.