Evaluation of Cytotoxicity of Some Synthetic Food Colours Yadav Somesh, Saxena Meenu, Singh Hitendra Kumar Lab. of Plant Cytogenetics, Dept. of Botany, Bareilly College, Bareilly–243 001 (U.P.) India. Abstract Human beings have been directly exposed to various chemical substances. The regular use of synthetic food colours in various foodstuffs is a new problem before us, in respect to human health. Therefore, the present study has been carried out to evaluate the cytotoxic potential of Erythrosine and Brilliant Blue FCF synthetic food colours on meristematic root tip cells ofAllium sativam. At lower concentrations (100 ppm and 250 ppm) erythrosine dye showed stimulatory effect on mitotic index, while at higher concentrations (500 ppm, 750 ppm and 1000 ppm) both dyes showed inhibitory effect on mitotic index. These dyes induced several chromosomal aberrations like: Chromosomal breakage, stickiness, chromatid separation, scattering, extrusion, chromosomal bridge, polarity abolition etc. The mitotic index, frequency of aberrations and their percentage as induced by these food colours were also calculated in accordance with the methods of Singh (1991). The study proves that higher concentrations were cytotoxic and mutagenic to the chromosomes of Allium sativum in the form of lethal aberrations and these concentrations were also responsible for inhibiting the mitotic activity significantly. Top Keywords Synthetic food colours, Erythrosine, Brilliant Blue FCF, Cytotoxicity, Chromosomal aberrations, Allium sativum. Top |