Shelf-life of citric acid-toluidine blue O-SO2 and its influence on Feulgen staining

The paper reports on the preparation of a dye-SO2 reagent employing a Schiff-type dye, toluidine blue O. The method is to replace 5 ml of N HCl per 100 ml of the dye solution by citric acid. The usual potassium metabisulphite is then added. The pH of this new modified dye-SO2 reagent is 2.5 as against 1.6 for the hydrochloric acid-toluidine blue O-SO2. The shelf-life of this newly developed dye-SO2 reagent is four weeks with appreciable reduction of staining intensity after this period as compared with that of a freshly prepared dye-reagent with N HCl. A possible interpretation for the observed phenomenon has been suggested.