Journal of Environmental Health Science & Engineering84GENOTOXIC EFFECTS OF TWO COMMONLY USED FOOD ADDITIVES OF BORIC ACID AND SUNSET YELLOW IN ROOT MERISTEMS OF TRIGONELLA FOENUM-GRAECUM361366G.KumarNSrivastava20151209Food additives are the substances that are intentionally added to modify visual appearance, taste, texture,processing or the storage life of food. There has been significant controversy associated with the risks and benefitsof food additives. The effect of different concentrations of food additives viz. boric acid and sunset yellowon the chromosomes of Trigonella foenum-graecum L. was investigated. Four concentrations of the two foodadditives  (0.25, 0.50, 0.75 and 1%) were used for 3 hours. All  concentrations of boric acid and sunset yellowshowed mitoinhibitory effect in root tips of Trigonella foenum-graecum and increase in chromosomal aberrations.Various types of metaphasic and anaphasic aberrations were scored and it was found that metaphasic aberrationswere more prominent than the anaphasic aberrations. The most observed aberrations induced by boric acid werestickiness at metaphase, bridges at anaphase, stickiness at anaphase, and scattering at metaphase, while the mostprevalent aberrations caused by sunset yellow were precocious movement, unorientation at anaphase, scattering atmetaphase and unorientation at metaphase. The result of present study clearly establishes the genotoxic behaviorof boric acid and sunset yellowhttps://ijehse.tums.ac.ir/index.php/jehse/article/view/312https://ijehse.tums.ac.ir/index.php/jehse/article/download/312/311