Genotoxicity Induced by Food Coloring Dyes on Meristematic Cells Root Tips of Allium Cepa

Food color has a great impact on food consumption and production. Many companies, restaurants and markets use the color perception theory to increase their sales. Recent studies have shown the negative impact of the food colors. So we analyzed the effect of synthetic food colors like orange red, lemon yellow, kesar yellow and apple green on actively dividing root tip cells of Allium cepa. Four different dyes were administered for the treatment of actively dividing root tip cells for 7 day duration along with control. Mitotic analysis clearly revealed the dye induced endpoint deviation like reduction in the frequency of normal divisions in a dose dependent manner. Mitotic divisions in the control sets were found to be normal dye has induced several chromosomal aberrations genotoxic effect at various stages of cell cycle such as stickiness of chromosomes, micronuclei formation, precocious migration of chromosome, unorientation, forward movement of chromosome, laggards, and Chromatin Bridge. Among all, stickiness of chromosomes was present in the highest frequency followed by partial genome elimination as micronuclei. The present study suggests that extensive use of synthetic dye should be forbidden due to genotoxic and cytotoxic impacts on living cells. Thus, there is an urgent need to assess potential hazardous effects of these food colors on other test systems like human and nonhuman biota for better scrutiny. Sheetal Kaur | Priyadarshini Halady | B. Revathi | Lodhi Bushra | Dr. Swapna "Genotoxicity Induced by Food Coloring Dyes on Meristematic Cells (Root Tips) of Allium Cepa" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-3 | Issue-4 , June 2019, URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd23568.pdf