These experiments were performed to investigate the safety of two herbs-Houttuynia cordata Thunberg and Lycium chinese Miller-irradiated with gamma-rays in respect of genotoxicity. Water extracts from the 10 kGy gamma-irradiated herbs were examined in two short -term in vitro tests ; (1) Salmonella typhimurium reversion assay (Ames test) in strain TA 98 and Ta100 and (2) Micronuclues test on clutured Chinese hamster ovary(CHO) cells. No mutagenicity was detected in the two assays with or without metabolic activation . From these results , the safety of the herbs irradiated with gamma-rays at practical doses could be revealed in further tests of genotoxicity in vivo, chronic and reproductive toxicity.