Year: 2024 | Month: August | Volume: 11 | Issue: 8 | Pages: 607-612
DOI: https://doi.org/10.52403/ijrr.20240865
Malachite Green Delays the Gastrointestinal Transit in Male Albino Rats
Sweta Chatterjee1, Sourapriya Mukherjee2, Goutam Paul1*
Department of Physiology, Kalyani University, Kalyani, India.
Corresponding Author: Goutam Paul
ABSTRACT
The synthetic food coloring agents are extensively used in various foods because it is cheaper and more stable than natural dyes. Despite of being restricted to use in food items or vegetables, Malachite green (MG), a synthetic dye, is still used as a food adulterant and people are often exposed to toxic MG by consuming contaminated food. Although intoxication by MG has been observed in several animal systems, its potential role in altering contractile activity has not been investigated so far. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate the effect of MG-induced changes on the contractile activity by assessing gastrointestinal transit with the charcoal meal test. We observed a significant decrease in gastrointestinal transit percentages in groups of rats exposed to MG compared to control rats. Furthermore, significant antagonistic effects on the inhibitory effect induced by MG on the gastrointestinal transit were observed in the pretreated L-NAME and methylene blue rats respectively. It can be concluded that the reason for the decrease in gastrointestinal transit caused by MG may be due to inhibition of smooth muscle contractions located in the wall structure of the small intestine, which ensures motility; facilitating the action of nitric oxide intrinsic myenteric efferents that secrete nitric oxide, the primary inhibitory neurotransmitter.
Keywords: Malachite green, contractile activity, charcoal meal test, intrinsic myenteric efferents, L-NAME, Methylene Blue .
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