Induction of giant cells by the synthetic food colorants viz. lemon yellow and orange red

Assessment of synthetic food dye erythrosine induced cytotoxicity, genotoxicity, biochemical and molecular alterations in Allium cepa root meristematic cells: insights from in silico study

Background

Synthetic food dyes are being exponentially used in food products and scarce studies regarding their toxicities and safety raise concern. Erythrosine is one of the synthetic food dyes being used in jams, fig, pineapple marmalades, dairy products, soft drinks, pickles, relishes, smoked fish, cheese, ketchup, maraschino cherries and a variety of other foods.

Methodology

In this study the cyto-genotoxic effect of erythrosine was evaluated, using root meristematic cells of Allium cepa for the cellular and molecular alternations at concentrations 0.1, 0.25, 0.5 and 1 mg/mL.

Results

The results revealed a significant decrease of 57.81% in the mitotic index after 96 h at the 0.1 mg/mL concentration. In biochemical analysis, the malondialdehyde content increased significantly (5.47-fold), while proline content, catalase activity and superoxide dismutase activity decreased gradually in a concentration-dependent manner showing a maximum decrease of 78.11%, 64.68% and 61.73% respectively at the highest concentration after 96 h duration. The comet assay revealed increased DNA damage with increasing concentration and attenuated total reflectance- Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) analysis showed significant alterations in biomolecules as indicated by multivariate analysis, i.e. Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Furthermore, molecular docking demonstrated a strong binding energy (Gbest = -11.46 kcal/mol) and an inhibition constant (Ki) of 3.96 nM between erythrosine and the DNA minor groove.

Conclusion

The present study's findings revealed the cytotoxic and genotoxic potential of erythrosine on A. cepa root cells. Further, the study also proposed the usefulness of A. cepa as a model system for studying the toxicity of food additives.

Toxicological analysis of synthetic dye orange red on expression of NFκB-mediated inflammatory markers in Wistar rats

Orange red is a food and cosmetic coloring agent made by the amalgamation of two azo dyes carmoisine and sunset yellow.The current study demonstrates the effect of different concentrations of orange red on antioxidant status, inflammatory biomarkers (TNFα, IFNγ, IL1β, IL6, COX-2, iNOS, and NFκB/p65), biochemical enzymes, and liver histology. In totality, 25 male Wistar rats were procured and arbitrarily alienated into 5 different groups each with 5 animals. Group I was taken as the control. Groups II-V were designated as treatment groups. Groups II and III were administered with (5 and 25 mg/kg b.wt.) and groups IV and V with (150 and 300 mg/kg b.wt.) of orange red via oral gavage for 30 days. It was observed that both low and high concentrations of orange red (25, 150, and 300 mg/kg) remarkably augmented the levels of serum inflammatory cytokines (TNFα, IFNγ, IL1β, and IL6) and the protein and gene expression of COX-2, iNOS, and NFκB/p65. A significant decrease in glutathione reductase, glutathione peroxidase, glutathione-S-transferase, superoxidase dismutase, and catalase activity was observed with increasing concentration of orange red. Furthermore, an increase in the level of several vital biochemical parameters and damage severity to hepatic tissue was also found dose dependent.

Genotoxic effect of two commonly used food dyes metanil yellow and carmoisine using Allium cepa L. as indicator

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Genotoxic assay via Allium cepa was carried out with metanil yellow and carmoisine.

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They are azo dyes used in food and pharmaceutical products as coloring agents.

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Allium cepa is considered sensitive indicator of environmental chemicals.

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Result indicated genotoxic and cytotoxic effects by metanil yellow and carmoisine.

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The mutagenic and toxic effects increased with time of treatment and concentration.

Food dyes are important component of food in this fast life. Metanil yellow and carmoisine are two azo dyes which are being used at an alarming rate for increasing visual appearance and consumer validity of food. There is a lot of controversy regarding the genotoxicity of these two dyes. In the present study genotoxicity of two food dyes metanil yellow and carmoisine was evaluated using Allium cepa as indicator. The effect of these two azo dyes was determined at concentration of 0.25 %, 0.50 %, 0.75 % and 1.0 % for 24 h and 48 h of exposure period using root meristematic cells of Allium cepa. Some genotoxicity parameters like mitotic indices and chromosomal aberrations were studied. It was found that both metanil yellow and carmoisine caused a significant reduction in mitotic index and also produce different kinds of chromosomal aberrations mostly at higher concentration and longer exposure period. The different kinds of aberrations that were observed in meristematic cells after treatment with both metanil yellow and carmoisine are disorientation at metaphase, metaphase stickiness, anaphase stickiness, anaphase bridge, c-mitosis and chromosome breaks. The genotoxicity of carmoisine was found very high as compared to metanil yellow at all concentrations and exposure periods. Thus it was concluded from the present study that carmoisine and metanil yellow have genotoxic activities and should be taken in very control and limited doses.