Mutagenic Effects of the Food Colour Erythrosine in Rats

Male rats were treated of with a diet supplemented daily by the synthetic food colour erythrosine (0.08 and 0.4 g/kg diet) for 30 days. Changes in mutagenic activities, as an index for evaluating of possible toxic effects, were monitored by measuring chromosomal aberrations of rat bone marrow, nucleic acids and total protein concentrations of rat liver and brain. The present study found that erythrosine induced chromosomal aberrations. Chromosomal aberrations of bone marrow cells were centromeric attenuation, centric fusion, deletions, ring shape, stickiness, end-to-end association and polyploidy. The mitotic index was statistically increased with a small dose of erythrosine but was inhibited with the higher dose. Biochemical assays revealed that the nucleic acids and the total protein increased markedly during the various periods of treatment. Results indicated that the two doses of erythrosine were found to be mutagenic agents, the high dose of erythrosine having more effect than the lower one.