Certain Dyes as Pharmacologically Active Substances in Fish Farming and Other Aquaculture Products
Abstract
A considerable amount of food fish farming, 63% in 2012, is now attributed to extensive and intensive freshwater inland aquaculture and also coastal brackish water ponds and shore-based mariculture. As a consequence, the unregulated use of dye chemicals from the family of the triphenylmethane dyes, malachite green (MG), a common commercial and inexpensive fabric dye, has developed and been used as a therapeutic multi-usage drug to globally reduce parasitic, microbial, and fungal diseases found in fish and seafood farming. There have been trade issues associated with certain dye compounds used as veterinary medicines, particularly with MG and its chemically related congeners in aquaculture. This chapter reviews these pharmacologically active dyes from their chemistry and toxicological concerns to their regulatory monitoring in aquaculture products due to their undesirable presence in aquaculture-sourced foods. Analytical methods to determine the presence of illegal pharmacological dyes in edible seafood products must meet a number of requirements for regulatory food control.