This study was performed to examine the antimutagenic and cytotoxic effects of potato vinegar and commercial vinegars(cider, brown rice, persimmon vinegars) on Salmonella typhimurium TA98, TA100 and cancer cell lines using Ames test and cytotoxicity assay, respectively. In Ames test, all vinegars did notexhibit any mutagenicity , but showed substantial inhibitory effects against N- methyl - N -nitro - N- nitrosog -uanidine(MNNG) , 4-nitroquinoline-1-oxide(4NQO), 3-amino-1,4-dimethyl-5H-pyrido(4,3-b)indol(Trp-P-1)and benzo( $alpha$ )pyrene(B( $alpha$ )P). The number of revertants per plate decreased significantly when these vinegars(80 ug/plate) were added to the assay system using TA100 strain. Especially, potato vinegar(80 ug/plate) showed high inhibition rate of 69.9% against mutagenicity of B( $alpha$ )P on TA100 strain. In the cytotoxicity assay, these vinegars also showed prominent cytotoxic activity against human cancer cell lines. Potato vinegar(10 ug/well) showed the strongest cytotoxic effect against HT1080 (fibrosacoma cell) andK562 ( myelogenous leukemia) at the same concentration when compared with other vinegars.