Abstract:

Background: Histopathology is the gold standard of diagnosis in most surgical cases, requiring tissue fixation, processing followed by sectioning and staining[1]. The study presented new deparaffinizing method that involved the use of easily available, nontoxic and eco-friendly Natural White vinegar and Pure Coconut oil as a possible alternative to xylene which is expensive and with hazardous effects to human beings.

Objectives: The aim of the study was to assess the effectiveness of natural white vinegar and pure coconut oil as deparaffinization agents by comparing to xylene gold standard.

Materials and Methods: A total of 73 Formalin fixed paraffin embedded tissue blocks from different sites, achieved at BMC central pathology department was retrieved. During deparaffinization procedure each tissue was subjected into three deparaffinizing agents namely natural white vinegar, coconut oil and xylene. The effectiveness for each was estimated in percentage of deparaffinization on final H&E-stained slides.

Results: For Bone tissue; 88% slides using xylene, 63% slides using coconut oil and 38% slides using vinegar showed good deparaffinization. For Muscle tissue; 88% slides using xylene,75% using coconut oil and 63% slides using white vinegar showed good deparaffinization. For Collagen; 87% slides using xylene,80% slides using coconut oil and 33% slides using White vinegar showed good deparaffinization. For Skin tissue 80% slides ,70% slides using coconut oil and 40% slides using white vinegar showed good deparaffinization and for fatty tissue 56% using xylene,25% using coconut oil and 6% using white vinegar showed good deparaffinization. Overall Percentage score was 80% for xylene,63%for Coconut oil and 36%for white natural vinegar as good staining quality and the statistical significance obtained was 0.445 which is non-significant.

Conclusion: From this study, both coconut oil and white natural vinegar cannot be admittedly as substitute for xylene as dewaxing agent in H and E procedure.