Biology (Apr 2023)

Toxicity Analysis of Some Frequently Used Food Processing Chemicals Using <i>Allium cepa</i> Biomonitoring System

  • Md. Shimul Bhuia,
  • Md. Sajjad Hossain Siam,
  • Md. Riat Ahamed,
  • Uttam Kumar Roy,
  • Md. Imran Hossain,
  • Md. Rokonuzzman,
  • Tawhida Islam,
  • Rezoan Sharafat,
  • Mehedi Hasan Bappi,
  • Md. Nayem Mia,
  • Md. Emamuzzaman,
  • Ray Silva de Almeida,
  • Henrique Douglas Melo Coutinho,
  • António Raposo,
  • Hmidan A. Alturki,
  • Muhammad Torequl Islam

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/biology12050637
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 12, no. 5
p. 637

Abstract

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Frequent use of various food processing chemical agents sometimes causes damage to our bodies by inducing cytotoxicity, genotoxicity, and mutagenesis. In Bangladesh, among various chemical agents, formalin, saccharin, and urea are vastly used for processing foodstuffs by industry and local people. This study is focused to assess the toxic effects of formalin, saccharin, and urea on the popularly used eukaryotic test model, Allium cepa L. The assay was carried out by exposing different concentrations of test samples to A. cepa at 24, 48, and 72 h, where distilled water and CuSO4·5H2O (0.6 µg/mL) were utilized as the vehicle and positive control, respectively. The root length of the onions was measured in mm, and the results propose that all the chemical agents demonstrated toxicity in onions in a concentration- and exposure-time-dependent manner. The highest root length was examined at the lower concentrations, and with the increase in the concentration of the test sample and exposure time, the RG (root growth) was inhibited due to the deposition of chemicals and hampering of cell division in the root meristematic region of A. cepa. All the chemical agents also revealed a concentration- and time-dependent adaptive effect up to 72 h inspection of 24 h and a depletion of % root growth at 72 h inspection of 48 h. Our study suggests that sufficient precautions should be confirmed during its industrial and traditional usage as a toxicological response to the chemical agents observed in the A. cepa assay.

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