Black Plum Fruit Extract as a Substitute for Haematoxylin in Haematoxylin and Eosin Staining Technique

Natural dyes are employed for staining various histological tissues, which serve as a significant alternative source for synthetic dye, thereby reducing the burden of buying synthetic dyes and its impact on the environment. This study aimed to extract the black plum plant (syzigium cumin) using an aqueous solvent and investigate its staining properties in the albino rat kidney tissue section. The Extract was allowed to evaporate at 55⸰ C. The proportion of black plum is 3:1(black plum extract: solvent v/v) in two places, and a mordant was added to the first part. The rat kidney tissue was processed for paraffin-embedded at a thickness of 5 micron. The black plum dye was used to stain the section for 10 minutes with potassium alum as mordant and without potassium alum. The result revealed that the Extract of black plum stained the nuclei purple and the cytoplasm pink by the eosin when compared with the control hematoxylin and eosin staining technique. The optimal stain was from the mordant black plum dye. The findings suggest that Extract from black plum has dye properties that can serve as an alternative for Haematoxylin in Haematoxylin and eosin staining techniques.