Hibiscus Extract In The Histological Demonstration of Tissues: So Far, So Good By Benard Solomon

How time flies! Over the years, I have been priviledged to witness how ideas in the realm of thoughts can crystallize into tangible research design and discoveries with a lesson in the danger of neglecting ideas flashed in ones subconscious mind even when things seem difficult or impossible. Truly, whatsoever a man’s mind could conceive, he can achieve!

Dateline was my adventure into the wild, world of the internet which has been well documented in my book-Simple Steps To BiomedicalInternet.  One of the results of my curiosity was my membership of the histonet, a listserve for histotechnologists and histoscientists based in the United States of America.

That singular opportunity gave me the leverage of raising a query on the use of Hibiscus sabdariffa extract in histological demonstration of tissues.

The reply to my query by two highly distinguished experts in that forum, John Kiernan of the Department of Anatomy and cell Biology, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada and Geof McAuliffe gave me the inspiration needed to forge ahead in the exploration of the fresh ideas and raging storm in my mind having realized from their response that I had before me a reality of pioneering a new research effort hence the saying ‘You Are On Your Own’ aptly applied to me.

The first breakthrough in that effort of persistence remains the publication in the Journal of Histotechnology based in the United States of America titled ‘Iron-Roselle’: A Progressive Nuclear Stain Substitute For  Hematoxylin (2008).  The publication marked the end of six consecutive years of great and persistent effort (between 2002 &2006) in unraveling the secret staining components, coloring pigment and workable staining method that will be reproducible anywhere in the world.

The scientific community was woken to the reality of using a naturally available local dye widely distributed globally that could be a substitute to haematoxylin in the nuclear demonstration of tissues.

Since science in interconnected, one thing must lead to another.  The work of Al Tikriti SA and Walker F (1978) on Anthocyanin-BB gave me much insight into the usefulness of Anthocyanins.  It’s presence in Black Berry became the highlight of their discovery.  Later, I discovered too that there is a common substance Black Berry and Hibiscus shared! It is ANTHOCYANIN. Eureka!

With that, it became easier to comprehend the possibility of using Hibiscus sabdariffa to stain histological sections the same way it was done for Black Berry.  That’s now history.

Unknowingly to me at that time, Egbujo and colleagues, Egbujo et al., (2008) has been making similar effort with slight differences.  No wonder their findings came months after my own publication.  The possible use of H. sabdariffa in histological demonstration of tissues was therefore confirmed and taken out of the realm of speculation! Can anyone beat medical science to that?

 It is not that other researchers haven’t made any effort in this light but the objectives were different.  Earlier effort only explored the use of H. sabdariffa as substitute to eosin and not to haematoxylin. The works of Al-Sarraj et al., (1997) readily comes to mind in this instance.

Recently, more interest has been generated in the scientific community to discover the wider application of the use of H. sabdariffa in the histological demonstration of tissues.  It is in this wise that the effort of E.A. Hashim (2006) and Ibnouf et al., (2014) becomes center of attraction.

Conclusively, it has been for me moments of painstaking effort and satisfaction.  In the realm of Hibiscus sabdariffa research as it relates to histological demonstration of tissue components, it is for me, So Far, So Good!

REFERENCES

Al-Tikriti SA, Walker F,: Anthocyanin BB: A nuclear stain substitute for haematoxylin.  J. Clin. Pathol. 31:194-196, 1978

Abd-Alhafeez Ibnouf1, Esam AbdulRaheem2, Mohamed SeedAhmed1, Dalia Dahab

: Assessment of staining quality of  Roselle (hibiscus sabdariffa) on formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded renal tissue sections;

 Int J Cur Res Rev | Vol 6 • Issue 21 • No vember 2014 pg 26-28

Benard Solomon. Iron-Roselle: A Progressive Nuclear Stain Substitute For Haematoxylin. J. Histotechnologyy. 2008; 31:57.

Eman A Hashim. The use of watery extract of Kujarat flow­ers Hibiscus Sabdariffa as a natural histological stain. Iraqi J Med Sci. 2006; 5 (1): 29-33.

Egbujo EC, Adisa OJ, and Yahaya AB. A Study of the Staining Effect of Roselle (Hibiscus Sabdariffa) on the Histologic Section of the Testis. Int. J. Morphol. 2008; 26(4):927-930.