Cytotoxicity of Sunset Yellow and Brilliant Blue food dyes in a plant test system

Abstract

Dyes used in the food industry are an important class of food additives and are often used to make processed food more visually appealing, especially to children. The purpose of this paper was to evaluate the cytotoxic effect of Sunset Yellow (SY) and Brilliant Blue (BB) food dyes on the cell cycle of onion (Allium cepa L). The dye doses were 5, 10 and 20 mg SY/100ml distilled water respectively 15, 30 and 60 mg BB/100ml distilled water, at the exposure times of 24 hours in root tip cells of onion. Cytogenetic tests reveal a decrease of the mitotic index and the occurrence of various cellular aberrations following food dyes treatments. Decrease in mitotic index and increase of cellular aberrations it was concentration dependent. Types of cellular aberrations were varied; thus, were observed cells with irregular kinetics of chromosomes, ring chromosomes, laggard and sticky chromosomes and cells with micronuclei. Exposure of onion roots tips to both food dyes showed a large number of cells in prophase and low number of cells in anaphase at all treatment doses. The obtained results suggest caution in the consumption of foods that contain these two types of dyes and finding healthier alternatives for colouring of some food products like sweets, in attractive colours for consumers, especially for children.

Keywords

• allium assay
• cytotoxicity
• food dyes
• mitodepressive