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The role of natural indigo dye in alleviation of genotoxicity of sodium dithionite as a reducing agent

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Abstract

Indigo blue is a natural dye used for thousands of years by civilizations to dye fabric blue and it is naturally obtained from Isatis tinctoria. I. tinctoria is not only used for extraction of indigo blue color but also used medicinally in Traditional Chinese Medicine because of its active compounds. Sodium dithionite (Na2S2O4) is used in dye bath for indigo blue extraction, but this reducing agent and its derivatives are major pollutants of textile industry and subsequently have hazardous influences on public health. Herein, the present study was designed to obtain the high yield of natural indigo dye but with low possible toxic effect. In this context, genotoxic effects of particular combinations of natural dye solutions obtained from Isatis tinctoria subsp. tomentolla with Na2S2O4 as reducing agent were investigated. Dye solutions were obtained using two different pH levels (pH 9 and 11) and three different concentrations of Na2S2O4 (2.5, 5 and 10 mg/ml). In addition to the dye solutions and reducing agent, aqueous extracts of I. tinctoria were assessed for their genotoxicity on human lymphocytes. For in vitro testing of genotoxicity, chromosomal aberrations (CAs), sister chromatid exchanges (SCEs) and mitotic indexes (MI) assays were used. Accordingly, Na2S2O4 caused significant increases in CA and SCE as well decrease in MI but the genotoxic effects of sodium dithionite were reduced with natural indigo dye. As a result, aqueous extracts of Isatis leaves removed the toxic effects of sodium dithionite and showed anti-genotoxic effect. For the optimal and desired quality but with less toxic effects of natural dye, 2.5 mg/ml (for wool yarn) and 5 mg/ml (for cotton yarn) of Na2S2O4 doses were found to be the best doses for reduction in the dye bath at Ph 9.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank for financial support from The Scientific And Technological Research Council of Turkey (Project number 109O655). We are also grateful to Prof. Dr. Ahmet İLÇİM for his valuable assistance in taxonomic identification of the plant.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Medicinal and Aromatic Plants Department, Suluova Vocational School, Amasya University, Amasya, 05000, Turkey

    İdris Bektaş

  2. Department of Biology, Faculty of Science and Letters, University of KSU, Kahramanmaraş, 46100, Turkey

    Şengül Karaman & Emel Dıraz

  3. Department of Medical Genetics, Faculty of Medicine, University of KSU, Kahramanmaraş, 46100, Turkey

    Mustafa Çelik

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  1. İdris Bektaş
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  2. Şengül Karaman
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Correspondence to Şengül Karaman.

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Bektaş, İ., Karaman, Ş., Dıraz, E. et al. The role of natural indigo dye in alleviation of genotoxicity of sodium dithionite as a reducing agent. Cytotechnology 68, 2245–2255 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10616-016-0018-7

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