The hazardous effects of three natural food dyes on developmental stages and longevity of Drosophila melanogaster

Abstract

Nowadays, food dyes obtained from herbal, animal, microbial and mineral sources are widely used as food additives. In this study, the toxic effects of three different natural food dyes (carmine, turmeric and annatto) on 72 ± 4 h larvae of Oregon-R wild type of Drosophila melanogaster were investigated. For this purpose, four different application doses (50, 75, 100, 125 mg mL(-1)) were chosen by means of preliminary studies. It was determined that larval mortality increased with increasing concentration in the application groups and the toxicity order was carmine > turmeric > annatto. It was observed that the survival rate was highest in the control with 98% and lowest in 125 mg mL(-1) carmine with 16%. In addition, the average lifespan of the adult individuals obtained from third instar larvae was also studied. While the average lifespan was 40.88 ± 1.44 days in the control group, these values were 10.81 ± 0.55-23.90 ± 1.27 days in the carmine group, 15.00 ± 0.80-22.42 ± 1.43 days in the turmeric group and 10.33 ± 1.03-35.68 ± 1.54 days in the annatto group, respectively. According to the obtained results, when both the developmental period from larvae into adults and the lifespan of the developing adults were compared with the control group, the food dyes were found to be toxic and the toxicity order of carmine > turmeric > annatto was identified.

Exposure to food additive mixtures in 106,000 French adults from the NutriNet-Santé cohort

“…anti-microbial, antioxidants, polyphenols), however, some concerning results, mainly derived from animal and/or cell-based experimental studies, have recently emerged regarding several additives. For instance, nitrates/nitrites 24 – 26 , carrageenans 31 , glutamate 32 – 34 , bixin 35 , 36 , artificial sweeteners 21 , 37 – 40 , phosphates 41 , 42 , emulsifiers 43 – 46 , caramel 47 , tartrazine 48 , 49 and butylated hydroxyanisole/ butylated hydroxytoluene (BHA/BHT) 48 were previously linked to metabolic, gut microbiota or endocrine perturbations along with carcinogenic, inflammatory and/or oxidative stress effects. Also, in May 2021, following an updated evaluation, EFSA reviewed its position on titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) and stated that this additive could no longer be considered as safe 22 , 50 – 52 .…”

Food additives: distribution and co-occurrence in 126,000 food products of the French market

“…However, some concerning results, mainly derived from animal and/ or cell-based experimental studies, have emerged regarding several additives. For instance, nitrates/nitrites [21][22][23] , carrageenans 24 , glutamate [25][26][27] , bixin 28,29 , artificial sweeteners [30][31][32][33][34] , phosphates 35,36 , emulsifiers [37][38][39] , caramel 40,41 , titanium dioxide (TiO2) 42 , tartrazine 43,44 and butylated hydroxyanisole/butylated hydroxytoluene (BHA/BHT) 43 were previously linked to metabolic, gut microbiota or endocrine perturbations along with carcinogenic, inflammatory and/or oxidative stress effects. Besides, some experimental results suggest that different additives may interact (among themselves and/or with the food matrix) and thus lead to synergistic or antagonist effects, but few studies have been performed on this topic to-date [45][46][47][48][49][50] .…”

Turmeric shortens lifespan in houseflies

“…Our findings corroborate the role of turmeric in shortening lifespan from previous studies (Fig 1a). For instance, Uysal et al, (2015) found that turmeric shortened lifespan in D. melanogaster adults. Similarly, Hellfeld et al, (2023) found that increasing turmeric concentration in the diet decreased oviposition in adult females and subsequently reduced egg-to-adult viability in the developing larvae in D. malanogaster.…”

“…Collectively, these results suggest that (1) diet is a major ecological factor determining development and health of insects, (2) diet modulates the toxicity effects of chemical baits as well as (3) natural toxic compounds. To date, however, we have very little understanding of how diet and natural toxic compounds interact, most of which comes from the work in model species such as D. melanogaster (see e.g., Hellfeld et al, 2023;Raje et al, 2015;Uysal et al, 2015;Damalas, 2011, De Souza Tavares et al, 2016.…”