Estimation of mutagenic potential of Tartrazine using Ames test

Maninder Kaur^a, Saroj Arora^a & Jatinder Kaur Katnoria^a*
*^aDepartment of Botanical and Environmental Sciences
Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar-143005

Received ,30th May, 2012 ;Revised: 8th August, 2012

Abstract : Food dyes play a very imperative role in choice and quality perception of food by appealing to the consumer. The function of food dyes is to improve the visual aesthetics of food in order to promote their sales. Earlier, the food dyes were prepared from natural substances, but in recent years, most of the dyes are synthetically prepared and are known to contain mutagenic/carcinogenic heavy metals. Considering the probable ill health effects of such food dyes, the present study was planned to estimate mutagenic potential of a synthetic food dye i.e. Tartrazine by employing Ames mutagenicity assay. Two tester strains of Salmonella typhimurium viz. TA98 and TA100 were used with and without metabolic activation. Different concentrations of dyes ranging from 25 µg to 2500 µg/0.1 ml culture were prepared using sterile double distilled water and were used for experiment. It was observed that Tartrazine was found to be moderately mutagenic in TA100 at higher concentrations (500 µg to 2500 µg/0.1 ml culture) and non mutagenic in TA98 strain.
Key words : Ames test, tartrazine, food dye, mutagenicity.