Toxic Effects of Tartrazine and the Protective Role of Curcumin on Liver Function and DNA Integrity in Male Rats

ABSTRACT Tartrazine (TAR) and curcumin (CUR) are commonly utilized in the food manufacturing sector. The present investigation was designed to assess the hepatotoxic impact of the food dye tartrazine on hepatic function and its related biomarkers. We systematically allocated 35 male Wistar rats into five homogeneous groups. The specified groups consisted of: control, TAR at a dosage of 10 mg/kg/day, TAR at a dosage of 100 mg/kg/day, TAR at a dosage of 10 mg/kg/day combined with CUR at 20 mg/kg/day, and TAR at a dosage of 100 mg/kg/day combined with CUR at 20 mg/kg/day. All experimental groups received the treatment via oral gavage. Our findings indicated that as the TAR dosage escalated relative to the control group, the levels of superoxide dismutase (SOD), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), and gamma‐glutamyl transferase (GGT) exhibited an increase, while the alpha‐fetoprotein (AFP) level demonstrated a decline. In the CUR‐treated groups, in comparison with the control groups, the levels of SOD, AST, ALT, LDH, total bilirubin, GGT, and AFP increased in the low‐dose TAR groups, whereas ALP levels decreased. Our histopathological analysis disclosed the occurrence of degenerative changes in both TAR and CUR treatment groups. The genotoxic assessment, utilizing the DNA comet assay, revealed that an increase in TAR dosage corresponded with heightened DNA damage; however, the incorporation of CUR mitigated this detrimental effect. Our findings suggest that tartrazine may exert deleterious effects on hepatic function, whereas curcumin has displayed partial therapeutic efficacy.