ABSTRACT
Tartrazine is a yellow food colorant, widely used in food products, drugs and cosmetics. The acceptable daily intake (ADI) oh human is 0-7.5 mg/kg body weight. The objective of our study was to examine the toxicity of Tartrazine and its main metabolite Sulphanilic acid to the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, Brine Shrimp larvae (Artemia Salina) and KGN granulosa cell line; in the aim to develop our knowledge about their toxicity effects. In this research, toxicity of Tartrazine and Sulphanilic acid were examined to the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans with Escherichia coli as a food source. Our results showed that from a 3 mM concentration of Tartrazine, and 1mM of Sulphanilic supplementation can disrupt the cell cycle nematode C. elegans even if it does not cause death. Different concentrations of Tartrazine and Sulphanilic acid (1, 2.5, 5, 7.5, 10, 25 50, 75, 100 μg/ml) were tested for their toxicity in a short term bioassay using Brine Shrimp (Artemia salina). The Brine Shrimp were hatched in artificial sea water and exposed to the Tartrazine and Sulphanilic acid after 48 hours. LC50 values were calculated after probit transformation of the resulting data. Tartrazine did not show any significant toxicity against Brine Shrimp but Sulphanilic acid was mildly toxic (LC50 value (μg/ml) of ~82.3 μg/ml). The Brine Shrimp assay proved to be a convenient and rapid system for toxicity assessment. The human KGN ovarian granulosa-like tumor cell culture line has been used as an in vitro system for determination of the effects of Tartrazine and sulphanilic acid, the result showed that Tartrazine and Sulphanilic acid were unaffected after 24 h of treatment exposure.
ABSTRACT
The effects of aqueous extract of Anthemis mauritiana Maire & Sennen flowers (AM) on rabbit and rat jejunum were studied. The AM (0.1-3 mg/mL) showed reversibly relaxation of spontaneous contractions on isolated rabbit jejunal smooth muscle The spasmolytic effect was dose-dependent with IC50 value of 1,48 ± 0,02 mg/ml. Similarly this extract inhibited the contractions of rat jejunum induced by KCl (75mM) and Carbachol (CCh, 10-6M) with IC50 values of 0,48 ± 0,09 mg/ml and 1,53 ± 0,03 mg/ml respectively. Furthermore, AM exhibited an inhibitory effect on the dose-response curves induced by CCh and CaCl2 on rat jejunum. These results clearly demonstrated the antispasmodic effect of AM which was strongly suggested to be mainly due to the inhibitory effect on Ca++ influx through membrane of jejunal smooth muscle.