Objective: Fixation in cytology is to preserve and maintain clear and consistent morphological features. Ethanol is most commonly used a gold standard fixative in cytology, but it has few disadvantages such as expensive, flammable, evaporates easily, subjected to pilferage and not easily available. So honey can be used as fixative as it contains several minerals, trace elements, vitamins, carbohydrates and acts as a fixative because of its inherent properties by enabling cellular preservation and dehydration. Considering this objective of present study is to evaluate the fixative properties of honey in comparison with ethanol in a double blinded manner. Materials and Methods: Two oral smears were obtained from each individual (n=50) by gently scraping the buccal mucosa. One slide was fixed in ethanol (95%) and the other in honey (20% processed) for a minimum of 15 minutes and stained with Papanicolaou stain. Two separate pathologists who were blinded for the fixative used evaluated the slides for 5 parameters (Cell morphology, Nuclear and Cytoplasmic staining, Clarity and uniformity of staining,) Results: Among 50 cases evaluated by both pathologists, results showed that honey fixed smears had acceptable nuclear and cytoplasmic staining, well preserved cell morphology, clarity and uniformity of staining as comparable to ethanol with no statistical difference between both fixatives. Conclusion: Hence in search of a better, eco-friendly and cost effective fixative, 20% processed honey can be efficiently used in cytological smear fixation for the preservation of cellular details.

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...