Comparison of Routine Xylene and Dish Washing Solution With Lemon Water Used as Deparaffinizing Agents

Abstract

Background: Xylene is an aromatic hydrocarbon known for its wide usage in tissue processing which has many hazardous effects. Objectives: To compare the efficacy of xylene free sections deparaffinized with dish washing soap and diluted lemon water and compare them. Materials and Methods: Using twenty paraffin embedded tissue blocks, three sections each were prepared. One section was stained with conventional H &E method (Group A) and the other two sections with xylene-free (XF) H & E (Groups B and C). Staining characteristics were compared with xylene and scoring was given. Result: There is appreciable nuclear stain, cytoplasmic staining, staining clarity with dishwash and diluted lemon water solution with p value <0.001 in comparison with xylene. Conclusion: This study shows good result in terms of nuclear staining, cytoplasmic staining, and clarity of staining, liquid soap with lemon can be used as alternate to xylene.