Toxicological assessment of sodium benzoate in Drosophila melanogaster

Abstract

Sodium benzoate (SB), the sodium salt of benzoic acid, is a food preservative with wide applications in the food, cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries due to its ability to kill many microorganisms effectively. Experimental evidence however suggests that excessive intake of SB poses detrimental health risks among consumers in the population. The present study investigated the toxic effects of various concentrations of SB using Drosophila melanogaster as a model. Adult wild‐type flies of Canton S strain (1‐ to 3‐days old) was orally exposed to SB (0, 0.5, 1.0, 2.0 and 5.0 mg/5 g diet) to evaluate survival rates for 21 days. Thereafter, we evaluated markers of oxidative stress, antioxidant status and behavioral activity in D. melanogaster exposed to SB for seven (7) days. We observed that SB (2.0 and 5.0 mg/5 g diet) decreased the survival of D. melanogaster. Also, SB inhibited glutathione‐S‐transferase activity and depleted total thiols and nonprotein thiols contents. Moreover, SB (5 mg/5 g diet) increased nitric oxide (nitrite/nitrate) level and reduced flies' emergence rate. Conclusively, findings from this study revealed that exposure to high concentrations of SB reduced survival rate and induced toxicity via the induction of oxidative stress and inhibition of antioxidant enzymes in D. melanogaster.

Two Old Wild-Type Strains of Drosophila melanogaster Can Serve as an Animal Model of Faster and Slower Aging Processes

“…The present results are in agreement with previously published reports indicating the adverse health effects of caffeine and sodium benzoate in Drosophila melanogaster [28][29][30]. One of the novel findings was a decrease rather than an increase of activity (and an increase rather than a decrease of amount of sleep) in response to such a caffeinated diet.…”