To evaluate the efficacy of dishwashing soap (DWS) solution, coconut oil, cedarwood oil and limonene as a substitute to xylene in routine Hematoxylin and Eosin (H & E) staining procedure

The components in the H and E staining procedure are xylene and graded alcohol which are used to carry out the intermediate steps of deparaffinization, rehydration and dehydration of tissue sections during the staining. Xylene causes health effects. To evaluate the efficacy of dishwashing soap (DWS) solution, Coconut oil, Cedarwood oil and Limonene as a substitute to xylene in routine and Eosin (H & E) Staining Procedure. The paraffin blocks of normal oral mucosa were retrieved. The biopsied tissues of the study samples were fixed in 10 percent buffered formalin, manually processed, embedded in paraffin and was sectioned from the samples. All the stained sections were evaluated by three oral pathologists independently for the following parameters like nuclear staining, cytoplasmic staining, clarity of staining, uniformity of staining and crispiness of staining. Data were summarized as Mean ± SD (standard deviation). Groups were compared one factor analysis of variance (ANOVA) and the significance of mean difference between (inter) the groups were done by Tukey’s HSD (honestly significant difference) post hoc test after ascertaining normality by Shapiro-Wilk’s test and homogeneity of variance between groups by Levene’s test. Inter observer variability was tested by Kappa test. A two-tailed (α=2) P<0.05 was considered statistically significant. Analysis was performed on SPSS software (Windows version 17.0). The results of the present study infer that coconut oil is an efficient substitute for Xylene. Coconut oil is an efficient substitute for Xylene, as it is non-hazardous, and causes less shrinkage of the tissue. It can be used as a de-alcoholization agent in the histopathological laboratory, without losing the quality of the histological details.