Now-a-days synthetic food dyes are being used most commonly as food colorant in confectionaries, drugs and cosmetics. Present study was designed to evaluate the toxic effect of tartrazine, a widely used azo dye, on Swiss Albino mice.Experimental animals were treated with tested dye at a dose level 200mg/kg & 400mg/kg body weight along with normal diet. Various physiological and biochemical parameters were assessed to study the toxic effect of tartrazine. Our study revealed a highly noticeable decrease in the body weight gain of mice at 400mg/kg dose compared with the control group. A significant variation in the average weight of the major organs (heart, kidney and liver) was also observed. The average weights of the heart and kidney were increased whereas the average weight of liver was decreased significantly. Serum triglyceride, creatinine and bilirubin levels were significantly increased, in contrast cholesterol level was decreased in the groups of mice treated with tartrazine.

Objective: Chocolate Brown is a brown synthetic diazo dye which is mainly used in chocolate cakes and also in other food products. The present study was designed to evaluate toxic effects of chocolate brown dye considering the biochemical and pathological parameters of Swiss albino mice. Methods: The experimental animals were subdivided into 3 groups such as control, group 1 (received chocolate brown dye at a dose of 200 mg/kg body weight) and group 2 (received chocolate brown dye at a dose of 400 mg/kg body weight) containing 5 mice in each of the groups. Different group of mice were fed with normal diet for 25 days and their body weight was taken every day. At 26 th day their blood serum and some organ was collected for conducting biochemical and pathological analysis. Results: During this study a remarkable increase in body weight was noticed in case of group 2 when compared to the control group. But surprisingly group 1 showed less increase in body weight than control group. This study showed that the weight of liver, heart and kidney was increased in case of group 2. While group 1 showed increased in heart weight but its kidney and liver weight was actually lower in comparison to the control group. Furthermore we have also found a significant raise in blood bilirubin level when dose increased from 200 mg/kg to 400 mg/kg. All the tests showed that chocolate brown dye is more poisonous at higher dose compared to lower one. Conclusion: Considering the inferential data on the physiological and biochemical parameters of mice the study recommends the withdrawal of the chocolate brown dye from the local market. People should be more concern about the hazardous effects of chocolate brown dye.