The advent of food preservation has solved many food borne diseases and it also
increased the food security over the years around the globe. From traditional
boiling to modern day artificial food additives, there are numerous ways of
preserving food items. The one that concerns most of the people around the
globe is the addition of chemicals as preservatives in food items like jams,
pickles, beverages etc. The most used chemical preservative sodium benzoate
(SB) has gained more lime light due to some of its controversial effects on human
health. Our study aims to investigate the toxic effects of sodium benzoate on the
development, behaviour and oxidative stress in zebrafish embryos. We exposed
zebrafish larvae of 5 hpf with 100 to 2000 ppm of SB and studied developmental,
behavioural and gene expression changes. Our studies indicated that SB induced
morphological abnormalities like pericardial edema, Yolk sac edema and tail
bending. The malformations were more pronounced with the increase in dose of
SB and time of exposure and also SB was found to delay the hatching process.
The LC50 was found to be around 400 ppm at 48 hours of drug exposure. The
behavioural experiment indicated increased thigmotaxis in treated larvae and
there was a two fold increase in the gene expression of (glutathione
reductase) and no change in (glyoxalase1) expression Our study strongly
supports the toxic effects on vertebrates at increasing doses. Thus, we suggest
caution in the extensive use of this preservative in processed and convenience
foods
