Teratogenicity and embryotoxicity study of Green S in rats.

Daily oral doses of 0 (control), 250, 500 or 1000 mg Green S/kg body weight were given to groups of 30 pregnant rats on days 0-19 of pregnancy. This treatment did not adversely influence maternal body weight, the numbers of implantations, of pre- or post-implantation losses or of live foetuses, the sex ratio or the weight of the litters or foetuses. No definite abnormalities were seen and the only finding in the examination of stained skeletons was a slightly more advanced ossification of the forelimbs of the offspring from females given 500 or 1000 mg Green S/kg/day. More foetuses with mucus in the trachea were found in the treated groups than in the controls but this was not considered to be a teratogenic effect. Thus no embryotoxic or teratogenic effects were detected with doses of up to 1000 mg Green S/kg/day throughout pregnancy.