Background: The rhizome of Zingiber officinale belongs to the family Zingiberaceae, which has a deep yellow color. It is generally called ginger and consumed whole as a medicine or used as a spice in cooking, manufacturing drinks, and tea. Previous studies have shown the importance of this plant in traditional medicine for the treatment of several ailments and even in the dye industry. The later use could be owing to its deep yellowish coloration, which could benefit the histologist and histoscientist when used in an improvised manner.Therefore, this study was carried out to determine the staining potential of crude ethanolic extract of Z.officinale on tissue sections taken from the heart, lungs, spleen, and liver of Wistar rats.
Objective: To study Z. officinale (ginger) extract as a histological dye for muscle fibers and cytoplasm.
Materials and Methods: Tissue samples were obtained from the heart, spleen, lungs, and liver of adult Wistar rats. The tissues were histologically processed and sectioned with a rotary microtome. Zingiber officinale was obtained from a local store in Owo, Ondo state, Nigeria,and extracted with 90% ethanol, thereby giving rise to a crude extract, which was then used to counterstain the sections earlier stained with alum hematoxylin. The control tissue sections were correspondingly stained with hematoxylin and counterstained with eosin.
Result: The ethanolic extract of Z.officinale, when used as a counterstain for alum hematoxylin, stained the muscle fibers and the cytoplasm yellowish, and the nuclei stained deeply green within 4 min. The staining reaction was suspected to be similar to alum hematoxylin and eosin, except for its greenish yellow color.
Conclusion: Zingiber officinale is a promising histological natural dye that is not only cheap but also readily available.
Key words: Zingiber officinale, ethanolic, liver, heart, spleen, lungs
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