Can Malachite Green Concentrations in Edible Fish Cause Genetic and Hepatic Toxic Effects? An Experimental Study on Adult Albino Rats

Nermeen Hassan,Farouk Elgendy,Aisha El Mansy

doi:10.21608/ajfm.2014.19155

Nermeen Hassan, Farouk Elgendy + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.21608/ajfm.2014.19155

Copy DOI

Abstract

Malachite green (MG) has been widely used as the most efficacious antifungal agent in the fish farming industry. The aim of this study is to evaluate hepatotoxicity of different MG concentrations in edible fish, its mutagenicity and DNA damage on adult albino rats for 4 weeks. Forty eight adult male albino rats were utilized and equally divided into 4 groups, each contains 12 rats. Three concentrations 2.2, 30 and 60 μg/kg body weight (MG) were tested in three independent experiments for 4 weeks. Mutagenicity and hepatotoxicity were evaluated by biochemical, cytogenic, histopathological examination and DNA fragmentation. MG caused an increase of alanine aminotransferase, aspartate amino transferase (ALT and AST), alkaline phosphatase (ALP) levels, and decrease in total protein in animals treated with MG as compared to control. Also, all concentrations of MG were found to induce significant DNA damage in bone marrow cells as assessed by chromosomal aberration. The histopathological changes were highly significant in rats treated with higher doses than other groups and persist even after 2 weeks from MG stoppage. We can conclude that MG and its residues in the edible tissue of fish could not be ignored due to their suspected genotoxicity, hepatotoxicity and DNA fragmentation with apoptotic changes even at lower doses, posing a potential risk for human consumption. This leads us to put strict limitations on its use in the fish farming industry in Egypt.

Highlights

Malachite green (MG), N-methylated triphenylmethane, is an organic compound used traditionally as an industrial dye for materials such as silk, wool, jute, leather, and cotton
Upon absorption by fish tissue, MG is reduced to leucomalachite green (LMG), which is the persistent form of the dye, retained much longer in muscle and the toxicity exerted by it has greater severity (Mitrowska and Posyniak, 2004)
Several in vitro studies have reported the toxic effects of MG at higher doses, the purpose of the present study is to focus on study of MG in vivo is capable of inducing/initiating genotoxic effects at low dose levels (2.2 μg/Kg body weight) in edible fish measured through hepatic degranulation of DNA and chromosomal aberration in bone marrow cells using male albino rats as an experimental model for period of the study, where MG concentrations reported to be (2.2 to > 60 μg/kg) in edible salmon and trout tissues (Jeong, 2005)

Summary

Introduction

Malachite green (MG), N-methylated triphenylmethane, is an organic compound used traditionally as an industrial dye for materials such as silk, wool, jute, leather, and cotton. It is used extensively as a non permitted food coloring agent especially in several countries (Máchová et al, 1996; Azmi et al, 1998 and Cha et al, 2001). MG residues can persist for longer than 10 days to months in edible fish tissue especially in the liver (Culp and Beland, 1996), while Máchová et al (1996) reported that LMG persisted in muscle of rainbow trout for 10 months after the treatment of 0.2 mg MG for 6 days. The elimination of MG and the metabolite LMG in fish muscle occurs very slowly, even at the high temperature of cooking (Chang et al, 2001)

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion