Study of Hematoxylin and Eosin dye and it’s Alternatives in Oral Cancer Detection Rajashekhargouda C. Patil 1 and Dr. Mahesh P. K. 2 1 DonBosco Institute of Technology, Bangalore, India Email: patilrajuc@gmail.com 2 DonBosco Institute of Technology, Bangalore, India Email: mahesh24pk@gmail.com Abstract— One of the most common and prominent stains in histology is Hematoxylin and eosin stain also spelled as haematoxylin and eosin stain and abbreviated as H&E stain or HE stain. It is used as the gold standard in staining the biopsy tissue for detection of presence of malignant cells. Use of H&E stain has been more than a century in histological cancer detection. In this paper we give the introduction on H&E stain. We also discuss the procedure of applying this stain and provide the alternative to H&E dye. Index Terms— Hematoxylin and Eosin, Oral Cancer, staining, pathology. I. INTRODUCTION H&E stain is comprising of two dyes viz., haematoxylin and eosin. These two stains were independently invented by Böhmer in 1865 and Fischer in 1875 respectively. In 1876, Wissowzky presented the combination of haematoxylin and eosin as a tissue staining procedure. The eosin normally stains the extracellular in red color where as hematoxylin stains nucleic acids, nuclei, and other cellular components (such as keratohyalin granules) blue in color. Haematoxylin does not stain unless it is oxidized in a process called ripening to yield haematein, which is then combined with certain chemicals called mordants [2]. The colour of the dye can be altered by mixing it with other agents such as iron alum (black), potash alum (blue) and salts of tin (red) [3]. Of these two dyes, Hematoxylin in used first and then Eosin is used as the counter stain for Hematoxylin. II. COMPOSITION OF DIFFERENT TYPES OF HEMATOXYLIN AND EOSIN SOLUTIONS Depending on the mordants used the stain color differs. Specific information on the mordants[6] for Hematoxylin is provided in the table 1. Different Hematoxylin Solutions are (A) Ehrlich’s hematoxylin having the composition of hematoxylin-2g, Absolute alcohol-100ml, Distilled water-100ml, Glycerin-100ml, Glacial acetic acid-10ml and Potash alum- 15g (B) Mayer’s hematoxylin composing of Hematoxylin-1g, Distilled water-1000ml, Potash alum-50g, Sodium iodate-0.2g, Citric acid-1g, Chloral hydrate-50g (C) Hariss’s hematoxylin, a mixture of Hematoxylin-2.5g, Absolute alcohol-25ml, Distilled water-500ml, Mercuric oxide-1.5g, Glacial acetic acid- 20ml, Potash alum-50g (D) Gill’s hematoxylin having the combination of Hematoxylin-2g, Sodium iodate- 0.2g, Aluminium sulfate -17.6g, Distilled water -750ml, Ethylene glycol-250ml, Glacial acetic acid-20ml (E) Cole’s hematoxylin which is a combination of Hematoxylin-1.5g, Saturated aqueous potash alum-700ml, 1% iodine in 95% alcohol-50ml, Distilled water-250ml (F) Delafield’s hematoxylin comprising of Hematoxylin- Grenze ID: 02.ICCTEST.2017.1.186 © Grenze Scientific Society, 2017 Proc. of Int. Conf. on Current Trends in Eng., Science and Technology, ICCTEST