Comparing the quality of castor oil with DPX as a mounting medium

Abstract

Background: Pure Castor oil has been used in the medical field for its healing properties. Its non medicinal uses include it as a food additive, flavoring agent, mold inhibitor, ingredient in skin care products and cosmetics. Its used in manufacturing of lubricants, dyes,resins and paints.Castor oil is a clear colorless viscid oil and has excellent keeping quality and good refractive index. So it was tried as an alternative to DPX as mounting media. Aim: To compare and evaluate the efficacy of Castor oil with DPX as a mounting medium. Materials and Methods: Two sections from each block of 5 histopathologically confirmed cases of mucocele were taken from the archives of the department.Sections were stained with routine H&E protocol. All the processing parameters were the same and done by the same person except for the choice of mounting media.Evaluation was done by two observers who were blinded to the choice of mounting media. Result: The results were tabulated. Student unpaired t test was used for comparing the results.Even though the results were not statistically significant,castor oil showed better details of cellular architecture than DPX. Conclusion: Castor oil showed superior quality and characteristics as a mounting media on basis of clarity of cellular characteristics.But it did not adhere to the slide.It can be used as an excellent alternative if some adhesive agents can be added to it which will help in its adherence and hence help in the preservation of the slides from mechanical damage