Mutagenic and antimutagenic properties of essential oil (EO) of basil and its major constituent Linalool, reported to possess antioxidative properties, were examined in microbial tests. In Salmonella/microsome and Escherichia. coli WP2 reversion assays both derivatives (0.25-2.0 microl/plate) showed no mutagenic effect. Salmonella. typhimurium TA98, TA100 and TA102 strains displayed similar sensitivity to both basil derivatives as non-permeable E. coli WP2 strains IC185 and IC202 oxyR. Moreover, the toxicity of basil derivatives to WP2 strains did not depend on OxyR function. The reduction of t-BOOH-induced mutagenesis by EO and Linalool (30-60%) was obtained in repair proficient strains of the E. coli K12 assay (Nikolić, B., Stanojević, J., Mitić, D., Vuković-Gacić, B., Knezević-Vukcević, J., Simić, D., 2004. Comparative study of the antimutagenic potential of vitamin E in different E. coli strains. Mutat. Res. 564, 31-38), as well as in E. coli WP2 IC202 strain. EO and Linalool reduced spontaneous mutagenesis in mismatch repair deficient E. coli K12 strains (27-44%). In all tests, antimutagenic effect of basil derivatives was comparable with that obtained with model antioxidant vitamin E. Linalool and vitamin E induced DNA strand breaks in Comet assay on S. cerevisiae 3A cells, but at non-genotoxic concentrations (0.075 and 0.025 microg/ml, respectively) they reduced the number of H(2)O(2)-induced comets (45-70% Linalool and 80-93% vitamin E). Obtained results indicate that antigenotoxic potential of basil derivatives could be attributed to their antioxidative properties.