Abstract
Natural colorants are widely used as additives to various foods. However, the basic data concerning the safety of these colorants are insufficient. Seven natural food colorants were assessed for their hepato- and nephrotoxicity in mice depleted of glutathione by pretreatment with buthionine sulfoximine (BSO). Oral administration of red cabbage color (4500mg/kg), gardenia yellow (4500mg/kg), cochineal extract (3000mg/kg), beet red (6000mg/kg), carthamus yellow (6000mg/kg), purple corn color (4500mg/kg), and lac color (1400mg/kg) to mice in combination with BSO (4mmol/kg, i.p.) produced no significant changes in serum glutamic pyruvic transaminase (SGPT) activity and serum urea nitrogen (SUN) concentration, although eugenol as the positive control for hepatotoxicity and thiabendazole as the positive control for nephrotoxicity produced significant increases in SGPT activity and SUN concentration, respectively.
