Toxicological effect of formalin as food preservative on kidney and liver tissues in mice model

In recent days, use of formalin has alarmingly increased in Bangladesh specifically in fishes, fruits and many other food items, exposing the large majority of the population to severe health risk. The current study was undertaken to evaluate the extent of damage caused by formalin on the kidney and liver tissues in model animal. Twenty four adult mice were divided into two groups as control and treatment. The animals of three treatment groups were given with 10gm/mouse normal poultry food having following quantity of formalin as 30 l, 3 l and 0.3 l (4.2mg/kg, 0.42mg/kg and 0.042mg/kg body) respectively. After ending the treatment period of 30 days the animals were sacrificed for histological study and visualized under light microscope. Results from the histopathological examination showed large cell deformity including shrieked and ruptured glomeruli, leucocytic infiltrations, degenerated tissue and congestion of renal glomerulus along with hemorrhage in renal tissue and congestion of central vain, enlargement in the sinusoids, deleterious degenerations, mild hemorrhages and coagulation were also observed in hepatic tissue compared with the compact organization of their control. Therefore, we strongly recommend here for the ban of formalin to the common user and current law should be strengthening enough to discourage the use of formalin in food material.