Honey as a substitute for formalin?

Özkan, Naziye; Şalva, Emine; Çakalağaoğlu, Fulya; Alev, Burçin

doi:10.3109/10520295.2011.590155

Cited by 26 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…3). Studies by Al-Maaini and Bryant 14 and Ozkan and coworkers 15 showed better staining of connective tissue with honey fixation. The property of this fixation is attributed to the aldehyde hydroxymethyl furfural that forms cross-links with amino acids, similar to formalin.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Fixative properties of honey in comparison with formalin

Sabarinath

Sivapathasundharam

Sathyakumar

2013

Journal of Histotechnology

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Fixation is an initial and important step in tissue processing for microscopical examination. The primary aim of fixation is to preserve the tissues in a life-like state, prevent bacterial putrefaction, prevent autolysis, and increase the refractive index of the tissue. The present study used a natural fixative instead of chemicals in order to prevent the deleterious effects of the chemical fixatives. The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of honey as a fixative, which is a natural product. A double-blind pilot study was conducted in the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology with the consent of patients who were visiting the hospital for other dental problems. A total of 30 specimens were taken, fixed using formalin and honey for 24 hours and then subjected to routine processing. The tissues were then stained with hematoxylin and eosin and were subjected to evaluation. Student's t-test was performed and analysis was done using Statistical Package for Social Science version 17 software. The numerical scores were graded from 1 to 4 and the mean standard deviation was calculated. The results showed statistically significant differences between honey and formalin samples for both nuclear details and cytoplasmic staining. Honey, as a tissue fixative, is easily available with no known toxicity and can be used as an alternative to formalin. However, studies should be done further to find methods to eliminate the disadvantages, such as homogenization, seen with the connective tissue. Furthermore, studies with large sample sizes are required to obtain more conclusive results.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Fixative properties of honey in comparison with formalin

Sabarinath

Sivapathasundharam

Sathyakumar

2013

Journal of Histotechnology

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“…Nuclear morphology showed no statistically significant difference between alcoholic formalin (3.25±0.13) and honey (2.83 ±0.2) fixation ( p >0.05). Similarly there was no significant difference among these fixatives with regard to cytoplasmic detail (p>0.05) Even immunohistochemical comparison done in Ozakan N et al [2] study for honey fixed and formalin fixed paraffin embedded tissue with Vimentin and Ki67 showed convincing results. There were no statistically significant differences among the various fixatives compared.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 79%

“…Ozakan N et al [2] study which compared honey with neutral buffered formalin and alcohol formalin various lesion in histopathology. Nuclear morphology showed no statistically significant difference between alcoholic formalin (3.25±0.13) and honey (2.83 ±0.2) fixation ( p >0.05).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Comparison of Fixative Properties of Honey with Ethanol in Oral Cytological Smears

Khan

Potekar

Nerune

et al. 2018

APALM

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Background: Fixation is an important step in cytopathological diagnosis. Ethanol is traditionally a popular and widely used fixative for cytopathological diagnosis. But ethanol is expensive and subjected to pilferage thus decreasing its ability. Ethanol denatures proteins and glycogen by precipitation. Hence in a search of better, ecofriendly and cost effective fixative, honey can be as efficient as ethanol in cytological fixation.Properties of honey such as high osmolarity, low pH and the presence of components such as ascorbic acid, hydrogen peroxide and phenol inhibine, all contribute to its anti-oxidative and antibacterial effects. Methods:A cross sectional comparative study was carried out after ethical approval on healthy patients fulfilling the inclusion criteria referred to the Department of Pathology in BLDEU'S Shri B.M. Patil Medical College, Hospital and Research centre, Vijayapur. After informed consent two buccal smears were obtained from each individual, one was fixed in Ethanol and other was fixed in Honey (20%) for staining, clarity and uniformity of staining showed significant p value (p <0.05) where as cytoplasmic staining, cell morphology showed no statistical difference. (p>0.05) Conclusion:The present study offers an innovative proposal of using natural eco-friendly sweeteners, as fixative in cytopathology. The results are promising and invoke extensive large multicentric collaborative work to reach a global consensus on this fixative. Two smears were collected from each subject, one smear was fixed in ethanol and other will be fixed in 20% commercially water). Smears were fixed in each fixative i.e ethanol and 20% honey for a minimum of 15 minutes. After which they were washed in tap water for 30 sec and subjected to conventional Papanicolaou staining procedure. Smears were evaluated by following criteria ( Keywords DiscussionGroup of cells which are building blocks of living organism unite to form a tissue which perform specific function.Microscopic study of individual cell in a smear is called cytology and study of tissue is called histology. Fixation preserves the cells similar to living state, when these are subjected to staining aids in cytological examination and diagnosis. Though many fixatives are used in both cytology and histology, each of them has certain advantages and disadvantages. Ethanol is a gold standard fixative widely used as cytological fixative in many laboratories. Advantages are rapid fixation, antibacterial properties and acceptable preservation of cytological details, but major disadvantage being not freely available, costly and inflammable which prevents it from being an ideal fixative.[6] So in search of an ideal fixative honey could be a natural, cheap and safe alternative to ethanol as it has all inherent properties which are required for fixation due to its low pH, high osmolarity and antibacterial properties. [7,8] Many different studies have already been done to compare honey as fixative in histopatholgy in comparison to formalin, which has provi...

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“…Previously studies were carried out using sugar syrup, jaggery, molasses and honey as an alternative to formalin for fixation [2,6]. Formalin, a chemical used to preserve tissues for biological and histopathological examinations, is added to milk to retain its freshness and prevent it from spoiling [7].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%