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This study was conducted to evaluate the toxic effects of an azo dye carmoisine widely used in foods and to investigate its relation to carcinogenicity. Carmoisine administered into mice orally in four different doses as control, low, medium, and high equivalent to 0, 4, 200, and 400 mg/kg bw, respectively, for 120 days. The key toxicological endpoint was observed including animal body weight, organ weights, hematology, biochemistry, and molecular biology assessment. The body weights of medium‐ and high‐dose carmoisine‐treated mice group were significantly decreased as compared to the control mice group. Platelet, white blood cell and monocyte counts of treated group were considerably higher, while Hb and red blood cell counts were drastically lower than the control group. The biochemical parameters such as serum alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, alkaline phosphatase, total protein, globulin, urea, and creatinine level were significantly increased, while serum cholesterol level was decreased after treatment as compared to the control. RT‐PCR results showed that expression of Bcl‐x and PARP gene was intensively increased, whereas expression of p53 gene was decreased in the mouse liver tissues treated with carmoisine. This study revealed that high‐dose (400 mg/kg bw) treatment of carmoisine was attributable to renal failure and hepatotoxicity. It also would be suspected as a culprit for liver oncogenesis.

Chemical preservation has become an increasingly important practice in modern food technology. Sodium benzoate is a permitted food additive in restrictive amounts by international laws, but their content must be declared and must not exceed the established limits by legislation. An experimental study for the level of sodium benzoate in different brands of mango juices available in the markets, stores and shops in Tangail region of Bangladesh was determined by high performance liquid chromatography. A Luna 5 ? C18 (2) 100A column (250 × 4.6 mm) was used for the chromatographic analysis. Chromatographic separation was achieved with isocratic solvent system comprising of sodium acetate and acetic acid buffer (pH =4.0)/acetonitrile in the ratio of 80:20 (1 ml/min) at 37oC and the chromatograms were recorded at 254 nm. The limit of detection and quantification for sodium benzoate was 0.00076 mg/100 ml and 0.00231 mg/100 ml, respectively. Quantification of the selected brand juices revealed that the level of the used sodium benzoate was within the FDA standard range. But by comparing with the Bangladesh Standard and Testing Institute (BSTI), brand-1 and brand-3 of the analyzed juice samples was found to deviate the current legal limits. The percentage recovery was found to be 92.04 ± 1.98 to 98.01 ± 1.91. It was found that some of the brands used excess amount of sodium benzoate which may be harmful for our health.Bangladesh Pharmaceutical Journal 20(1): 20-26, 2017

Peroxidase enzyme was isolated and purified from the pulp of disease infected ripen papaya of local variety by 90% ammonium sulphate precipitation, chromatography on DEAEcellulose followed by hydrophobic chromatography on Phenyl Sepharose CL-4B and the purifications achieved was about 7.2 fold with 2.5% recovery. The purified enzyme was homogeneous as judged by polyacrylamide slab gel electrophoresis. The purified enzyme had a Mr of about 55,000 and 50 000 as determined by gel filtration on Sephadex G-100 and SDS-PAGE, respectively. The molecular mass of the enzyme was found to be very similar under both reducing and non-reducing conditions indicating that the enzyme contains no subunit. The enzyme has the following characteristics: pH optima at 6.0, temperature optima around 38°C, enzyme activity was found to be strongly inhibited in the presence of potassium cyanide and Fe+2 while the activity was found to be remarkably increased in the presence of ammonium sulphate. The Km value for the peroxidase obtained with pyrogallol as substrate was 0.027 mM. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bjmb.v6i2.17643 Bangladesh J Med Biochem 2013; 6(2): 49-57

Three lectins designated as SLL-1, SLL-2 and SLL-3 were purified from small sized Sajna (Moringa oleifera L.) leaves by gel filtration of 100% ammonium sulfate saturated crude protein extract on Sephadex G-75 followed by ion-exchange chromatography on DEAE and affinity chromatography on Sepharose-4B. The molecular weight of the lectins SLL-1, SLL-2 and SLL-3 were 1,55,000, 1,15,000 and 85,000, respectively, as determined by gel filtration on Sephadex G-150 and 1,60,000; 1,20,000 and 85,500, respectively, by SDS-polyacrylamide slab gel electrophoresis. SLL-1 and SLL-2 are dimer in nature held together by disulfide bond (s), while SLL-3 is a monomer. The lectins agglutinated specifically rat red blood cells and the agglutination was inhibited specifically by methyl-a-D-galactopyranoside, methyl-β-D-galactopyranoside and D-galactose. The lectins SLL-1, SLL-2 and SLL-3 contain 3.9, 3.4 and 2.8% neutral sugar, respectively, and the sugar compositions were glucose for SLL-1, mannose for SLL-2 and SLL-3 contained either N-acetyl-D-glucosamine or N-acetyl-D-galactosamine or both. The lectins exhibited cytotoxicity in brine shrimp lethality bioassay.