Effect of food preservative and food coloring agent on some physiological and hematological parameters in albino rats and the protective role of garlic

ABSTRACT

Most children, in the age of nursery consume food that contains both colorants and preservatives with great amount. This observation led us to study the interaction between sodium nitrite as a food preservative and sun set yellow as a coloring agent. The mixture of the two agents at the limited dose of each was found to be a lethal dose. So, 1/10th of this dose was used daily for 30 days. Animals were divided into three groups. The first group served as a control, while the second group was orally administered a mixture of 10 mg sod.nitrite [NaNO3]/kg mixed with 0.5 mg/kg/day sun set yellow [S.S.Y]. The third group received garlic [5 mcg/kg] in addition to the above mentioned mixture. After 30 days of treatment, half of the animals from each group were decapitated. The other half of the animals was left for another 15 days without any additional treatment as a recovery period. Ingestion of the mixture of [NaNO3 and S.S.Y] significantly decreased rat body weight, RBCs and WBCs counts, Hb%, Hct%. No changes were recorded for organ/ body weight, respiratory rate, heart rate, rectal temperature. A complete recovery from the abnormalities of most physiological and hematological parameters was observed after the recovery period or when garlic was administered