Assessment of Staining Quality of Curcumin as a Substitute for Eosin in Hematoxyline and Eosin Staining in Histopathology

摘要

Background and objectives: Hematoxylin and Eosin staining is the globally accepted staining technique for histology and histopathology sections. Though hematoxylin is a natural dye, eosin is synthetic dye manufactured from chemicals. Eosin acts as a counterstain to hematoxylin giving sharp contrast to its blue colour. Eosin being a chemical can cause health hazards and environmental pollution. Using ecofriendly materials and going organic is the demand of this era. The present study was conducted to evaluate the staining qualities of Curcumin longa(turmeric) a natural substitute of eosin and the results of Hematoxylin and Eosin stain (H and E) was compared with Hematoxylin and Curcumin(H and C) stain. Methods: The study was conducted in the Histopathology lab of a tertiary health care centre in South India after getting Institutional Ethical Committee Clearance. For each staining method 100 sections were prepared from 20 collagen tissues, 20 epithelial tissues, 20 smooth muscle tissues, 20 bony tissues and 20 adipose tissues. The staining qualities were assessed by an experienced pathologist and the results were scored as excellent, good and poor. After entering the scores in Microsoft excel, the results were statistically analyzed. Results: H and C staining gave comparable results with H and E staining in all the five types of tissue sections studied (p value0.05) with intense affinity on collagen and muscle fibres. Interpretation and conclusions: Curcumin is a safer and cheaper alternative to Eosin stain in histology and histopathology sections.