Comparative assessment of artificial sweeteners toxicity via express biotest

Abstract

Various food additives are being produced and consumed by population in greater and greater quantities and risks of probable toxic effects exerted by them are growing as well. These additives frequently occur in various combinations in food products and the environment, they can be consumed for a long period of time and produce hazardous mutagenic and carcinogenic effects. Therefore, it is extremely vital to assess combined impacts exerted by food additives so that their safety would be proven. There are certain advantages related to vegetative test-systems and cytogenetic analysis procedures for biological tests data when it comes to screening for toxic and mutagenic effects produced by chemicals. Allium-test which applies Allium cera bulb onion roots as a test-object is quite distinctive. When compared with other tests that employ animals and various cell cultures, this test turns out to be less complicated and costly and more sensitive as well. Our research goal was to examine influences exerted by such artificial sweeteners as aspartame and sucralose on living weight gain and mitotic anomalies frequency in apical meristem cells in Allium cera bulb onion roots. We also assessed a synergy effect caused by combined exposure to both these chemicals. We detected that aspartame caused a significant decrease in root living weight against the control while there were no toxic effects caused by sucralose. Maximum toxicity was detected when a test-system was exposed to both artificial sweeteners together and it was considered to result from the above mentioned synergy effect. Chromosome aberrations frequency in test samples differed insignificantly from the control but we also detected authentic changes in chromosome anomalies spectrum in root meristem cells. Disorders in chromosome disjunction and anomalies in the mitotic apparatus were the most frequently registered ones.

Developing the Methods of Food Preservatives Extraction From Complex Matrices for Bioassay Purpose

“…and is especially suitable for the analysis of complex mixtures of chemical compounds. Currently, the Allium test is widely and successfully used to study the toxic, cytotoxic and genotoxic effects of food additives [6]. Several papers have also been published, in which onion roots were placed directly in food products such as drinks, juices, and milk [7,8,9].…”