Utility of Kumkum as a Counterstain in Histopathological Evaluation of Cervix: An Unexplored Archaic Behooveful Colourant

Abstract

Introduction: The turmeric extract has been used as a potential alternative for eosin on routine histopathology sections. Kumkum is made from saffron flowers of Crocus sativus L. with mild use of turmeric. Aim: To evaluate the staining characteristics of kumkum solution as a counterstain and to compare the staining characteristics of kumkum solution and turmeric solution in histopathology sections of cervix tissue. Materials and Methods: It was a prospective observational study conducted at a rural tertiary care referral institute, PES Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Kuppam, Andhra Pradesh, India, from May 2019 to July 2019. For each case, cervix tissue sections were stained with Haematoxylin and Eosin (H&E), Haematoxylin and Turmeric (H&T) and Haematoxylin and Kumkum (H&K). The staining characteristics of H&T and H&K was documented and evaluated using a scoring system by comparing with that of conventional H&E sections. The parameters were analysed for statistical significance. Chi-square test and two-sample t-test were the statistical tools used to analyse the data. All statistical calculations were done through statistical software STATA version 14.1. Results: A total of 57 cases were analysed. H&K was better than H&T with respect to contrast at low power, morphological details of cytoplasm, nucleus and acellular structures (p<0.001). The overall performance of H&K was better than H&T and was statistically highly significant (p<0.001). Conclusion: Kumkum appears to be an efficient counterstain for demonstrating various structures in histopathology sections of cervix tissue. It may be considered as an unexplored archaic behooveful colourant. The utility of kumkum may be extended to study the histopathology of other tissues and organ systems in the body.