Publication:

A comparative study on the efficacy of honey and ethanol as cytological fixatives

Background In cytological fixatives prior to Papanicolaou staining smears are fixed mostly in alcohol or any alcohol based special purpose fixative. Alcohols are costly, hazardous and also there is a problem of disposal. Here, a very cheap and easily available alternate for fixative was being used. The objective was to describe the efficacy of 20% honey as a cytological fixative in comparison to ethanol.

Methods The study was done on buccal smears from students of Department of MLT, Government Medical College, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India for a period of six months after ethical approval. Two buccal smears were collected from either cheek using wooden spatula/blunt end of the Ayers spatula. One of the smear is fixed in ethanol (95%) and the other smear is fixed in honey (20%). The slides were scored based on the assessment parameters: nuclear staining, cytoplasmic staining, cell morphology, clarity of staining and uniformity of staining.

Results The study was done on buccal smears, the sample were smeared and fixed onto slides using two fixatives- 95% ethanol and 20% honey. Both reported good quality staining feature, preservation of morphology and a crisp nuclear and cytoplasmic staining. It has also added advantage of being nontoxic, economical, non-flammable, non-hazardous, no problems associated with license of purchase, reduces overall turnaround time and is easy to handle without any sort of irritation.

Conclusions Thus, the overall study shows that honey has got a fixative action, which can be implemented soon in the industry.