142 COAL-TAR COLORS USED IN FOOD PRODUCTS. 



G. T. 650. 



Trade names. Methylene Blue B and BG; Methylene Blue BB in 

 powder extra D; Methylene Blue BB in powder extra; Methylene 

 Blue A extra. 



Names under which it was offered on the United States market as a 

 food color in 1907. Methylene Blue B; Methylene Blue. 



Scientific name. Chlorid or zinc double-chlorid of tetramethyl- 

 tiamido-phenazthionium. 



Discovered. 1876. 



Shade. Blue. Offered by 2 out of 12 sources. 



FAVORABLE. 



1. SCHACHERL (p. 1046): "To these groups belong the much-used Methylene Blue, 



which in moderate doses is harmless." 



2. FRAENKEL (p. 574): "* * * Methylene Blue causes no noteworthy disturb- 



ances." 



3. CAZENEUVE (Arch. gen. de. med. 1886, v. 1, p. 753} says that it produces gastric 



intestinal derangements but is not a violent poison. 



UNFAVORABLE. 



1. Prohibited by Confectioners' List. 



2. WEYL (p. 31): "Cazeneuve and Lepine pointed out the poisonous nature of 



* * * Methylene Blue * * *." 



3. FRAENKEL (p. 579): "To regard Methylene Blue as a specific remedy such as 



quinin, is, in spite of a few such experiments, improper; it produces sub- 

 sidiary effects which depend in part upon local irritation of the intestinal tract, 

 and partly, however, upon irritation of the bladder with increased micturi- 

 tion." 



4. CAZENEUVE (Arch. gen. de med. 1886, v. 1, p. 753), says that it produces gastric 



intestinal derangements. 



5. COMBEMALE and FRANCOIS (Sem. Med. 1890, no. 81, p. 258), say that it produces 



intestinal disorders and vomiting, colored urine, and colored feces in dogs, 

 and therefore is a highly injurious color. 



6. SANTORI (Moleschott's Untersuchungen, 1895, v. 15, p. 42) classes it as injurious. A 



dog weighing 4,600 grams received in 20 days 18 grams dye, which amounts to 

 196 milligrams per kilo per day, or 137 grains per 100 pounds per day. Urine 

 and feces colored; diarrhea and continuous vomiting; blood and pus contained 

 in stool; loss of appetite; loss of weight was 1,600 grams, or 35 per cent. Animal 

 died. Autopsy disclosed blue-colored skin and fat; brain turned blue on 

 exposure to air, but only the outer cortex was colored; stomachical catarrh; 

 the mucous membrane of the stomach colored blue; the heart sac and the 

 pleura colored blue to blue-green; intestines externally blue; kidneys were 

 thickened and colored dark blue throughout; parenchymatous kidney inflam- 

 mation; fatty degeneration of the liver; diaphragm locally colored. 



7. ARLOING and CAZENEUVE, quoting Cazeneuve and Lupine (Arch, de med. v. 9, 



p. 364), say that it is not inactive. 



8. Forbidden by Resolutions of Swiss Analytical Chemists, September, 1891. 



