Background and Aim: The use of food dyes can cause certain diseases, such as anemia and indigestion, along with other disorders, tumors, and even cancer. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the chemical nature and toxicity of some commercial dyes locally used in processed foods compared with standard food dyes. Materials and Methods: Three types of standard and commercial food color additives (Sunset Yellow, Tartrazine, and Carmoisine) were extensively examined. The chemical structures and functional groups of the dyes were evaluated by Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The melting temperatures of the dyes were also determined by chemical thermal analysis. The acute toxicity test to evaluate the standard and commercial food color safety was estimated by a range-finding study using 150 Wistar albino rats. Sub-groups were administered one of the three colors under study at doses of 2, 3, 4, and 5 g/kg body weight (BW) orally for 7 days. When no mortality was observed, an additional 15 g/kg BW was administered. Concerning the median lethal dose 50 (LD50), 38 rats were exploited using the up-and-down method. Results: Commercial dyes had lower melting points than standard colors. Regarding the range-finding study, rats receiving different doses of the dyes exhibited no signs of toxicity, no deaths, and no clinical or gross pathological signs throughout the 7 days of the experiment. However, the animals that were dosed with 15 g/kg BW of each dye showed signs of loss of appetite, tachycardia, drowsiness, and eventual death. The LD50 values of the commercial food dyes, particularly Sunset Yellow and Carmoisine, were lower than those of the standard dyes. Conclusion: Commercial food colors were more toxic to rats than standard food colors. Differences were observed between the purity of the standard and commercial dyes, and the latter ones contained different percentages of salt, indicating the occurrence of fraud in commercial markets. Keywords: acute toxicity, food colors, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, lethal dose 50, range-finding study.
Disturbances of lipid metabolism is a predisposing factor of cardiovascular diseases, which are accompanied by high mortality rates of the population - ischemic heart disease and ischemic stroke. Plant polysaccharides can be promising remedies for correction of lipid imbalance.
In this regard, the aim of the study was to assess the hypolipidemic activity of polysaccharides isolated from the leaves of mistletoe.
The test-object was the leaves of the white mistletoe (Viscum album L.) growing on the apple (Malus domestica Borkh.), and the pear (Pyrus communis L.). Polysaccharides (water-soluble polysaccharides and pectin substances) were quantitatively determined by the gravimetric method followed
... Show MoreLiver is considered as the first target for the toxic effects of toxins and other xenobiotics, and this can be attributed to its role as a site which receive all absorbed xenobiotics from the gastrointestinal tract and its role as a major site for biotransformation of xenobiotics. The present study was designed to evaluate the possible hepatoprotective effect of benfotiamine against CCl4-induced hepatotoxicity in rats. The study was conducted on 48 male albino rats; the animals were allocated into 8 groups (6 rats in each group) and treated as follow: 4 groups treated with oral doses of either normal saline, benfotiamine (100 mg/kg), thiamine (100 mg/kg), N-acetylcystein (400 mg/kg) only without induction of hepatic damage. Th
... Show MoreObjective: In this study ,the effects of silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs)were investigated on the liver and kidney tissues. Methodology: The produced nanoparticles have an average particle size of about 30 nm. Eighteen male albino rats were used by dividing them into three groups, each group comprise 6 rats. First group(control group) given food and water like other groups by liberty. Second group was tail injected by (AgNPs) at dose of (0.4 mg/kg. body weight/day). Third group was injected by (AgNPs) at dose of (0.6 mg/kg. body weight/day) for 15 days. All animals were sacrified at the end of experiment. The liver and kidney tissues specimens were fixed in 10% formalin and histological preparations were carried out then stained with H&E. Path
... Show MoreThe object of this work is to investigate the effect of the addition of methanol on the shelf life and color characteristics of novolak resin. Different percentages were added and two mechanisms were suggested for the addition. High ortho structure (1, 2-3) novolak resin was prepared and used in the above investigation. Experimental determination using FT-IR and UV-spectroscopy showed that on the addition of 30% of methanol and according to the second mechanism of addition novolak shelf life increased to 12 months without obvious decomposition and color change. It is suggested that methanol plays an important role in the inhabitation of the reactive sites on the resin that are responsible for the oxidation of the polymer when exposed to
... Show MoreIn this paper, an efficient method for compressing color image is presented. It allows progressive transmission and zooming of the image without need to extra storage. The proposed method is going to be accomplished using cubic Bezier surface (CBI) representation on wide area of images in order to prune the image component that shows large scale variation. Then, the produced cubic Bezier surface is subtracted from the image signal to get the residue component. Then, bi-orthogonal wavelet transform is applied to decompose the residue component. Both scalar quantization and quad tree coding steps are applied on the produced wavelet sub bands. Finally, adaptive shift coding is applied to handle the remaining statistical redundancy and attain e
... Show MoreSuccinic acid is an essential base ingredient for manufacturing various industrial chemicals. Succinic acid has been acknowledged as one of the most significant bio based building block chemicals. Rapid demand for succinic acid has been noticed in the last 10 years. The production methods and mechanisms developed. Hence, these techniques and operations need to be revised. Recently, an omnibus rule for developing succinic acid is to find renewable carbohydrate Feedstocks. The sustainability of the resource is crucial to disintegrate the massive use of petroleum based-production. Accordingly, systematically reviewing the latest findings of bacterial production and related fermentation methods is critical. Therefore, this paper aims to stud
... Show MoreBACKGROUND: Color Vision Deficiency (CVD) is mostly an inherited trait and is not an uncommon problem. Prevalence of CVD differs among different ethnic and geographic properties of the population that affect their genetic constitution. Ishihara plates remain an internationally accepted tool for screening red-green CVD. OBJECTIVE: To determine the prevalence of red-green CVD among adult males from Baghdad province. PATIENTS AND METHODS: One thousand and five (1005) adult males were enrolled in this study, using a systematic sampling technique, and were screened for CVD utilizing 24-plate Ishihara plates and re-tested by EnChroma 39-Color plates. All males were residing in Baghdad and the center of Iraq. RESULTS: Among all tested males, 948 r
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