The preservative sodium benzoate exhibits some genotoxic activity at concentrations of 4 and 8 mM. - GreenMedInfo Summary
Cytogenetic study in cultured human lymphocytes treated with three commonly used preservatives.
Food Chem Toxicol. 2008 Jul;46(7):2390-3. Epub 2008 Mar 30. PMID: 18467014
Department of Genetics, Faculty of Medicine, Democritus University of Thrace, Alexandroupolis 68100, Greece.
Potassium sorbate, sodium benzoate and potassium nitrate have been tested for their genotoxic, cytostatic and cytotoxic potential in human peripheral blood cells in vitro. Potassium nitrate has shown no activity in the test system. When potassium sorbate and sodium benzoate were used at concentrations of 2.0, 0.2 and 0.02 mM no cytostatic activity was detected. However, concentrations of 4 and 8 mM have shown a weak cytostaticity. Additionally, a genotoxic activity using the SCE methodology has been observed at 8 mM of sodium benzoate and at 4 and 8 mM of potassium sorbate. No cytotoxic activity has been induced by the three preservatives. Data demonstrate that the preservatives at low concentrations can be considered as non genotoxic under conditions tested.