Assessment of toxicity of formalin use as food preservative evidenced by cytotoxic and genotoxic effects in mice: An in vivo study

Tanushree Paul; Sumitava Roy; Raktim Mukherjeesub; Saikat Pramanik; Susanta Roy Karmakar

doi:10.52756/ijerr.2017.v12.006

Authors

Tanushree Paul Post Graduate Department of Zoology, Maulana Azad College, Kolkata-700 013, West Bengal, India
Sumitava Roy Post Graduate Department of Zoology, Maulana Azad College, Kolkata-700 013, West Bengal, India
Raktim Mukherjeesub Post Graduate Department of Zoology, Maulana Azad College, Kolkata-700 013, West Bengal, India
Saikat Pramanik Post Graduate Department of Zoology, Maulana Azad College, Kolkata-700 013, West Bengal, India
Susanta Roy Karmakar Post Graduate Department of Zoology, Maulana Azad College, Kolkata-700 013, West Bengal, India

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.52756/ijerr.2017.v12.006

Keywords:

Cytotoxicity, formalin, genotoxicity, mice

Abstract

The present study was conducted to find out the deleterious effects of formalin by studying cytogenetical parameters, namely chromosome aberration (CA), mitotic indices (MI) and sperm head anomaly (SHA) in mice. Healthy mice weighing between 20-25 gms were fed with formalin at a dose 0.042mg/kg body weight to find out whether there is any toxicity induced by this chemical. Experiments were carried out at three different fixation intervals, namely 7 Days (7D), 14 Days (14D) and 21 Days (21D), maintaining suitable controls. The investigation reveals that feeding of formalin induced geno-toxicity and cyto-toxicity. This produced greater amount of CA and MI along with general increase in the SHA. Thus the increased level of geno-toxicity and cyto-toxicity could be attributed to chronic feeding of the chemical. Although our present investigation is an initial attempt to test the toxic effects of formalin, hopefully it will open up new avenues to solve critical issues yet to be discovered.

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