Chronic Toxicity Assessment of Lac Dye as Potential Food Colorant

Abstract

Lac dye is a natural red colored pigment obtained from lac resin which is cultivated on specific host trees. Although, lac dye is being used as colorant in food and pharmaceutical applications, no chronic toxicity assessment for its safety is yet reported. Keeping this in view, long-term dietary toxicity study was carried out on Wistar rats. The dye was orally administered through diet at 0 (control), 250, 500 and 1000 mg/kg body weight, to male and female Wistar rats for 52 weeks. Parameters such as body weight, organ weight ratio, food consumption, urine analysis, biochemical and hematological indices, gross morphology at necropsy and histopathological integrity of organ/tissues were tested. Overall, our results indicated that, repeated dietary exposure of lac dye up to the dose of 1000 mg/kg body weight in diet did not produce any toxic effects in Wistar rats.