Rose Bengal

Property Data Common name Suggested name Other names C.I. number C.I. name Class Ionisation Solubility aqueous Solubility ethanol Absorption maximum     Colour Empirical formula Formula weight Rose bengal Rose bengal – 45440 Acid red 94 Fluorone Acid 36% 7.5% 544-548 (Conn) 548-549 (Aldrich) 544 (Gurr) Red C20H2O5I4Cl4Na2 1017.7

Rose bengal has been used to replace Eosin Y ws in the H&E stain for photomicrography as early colour film recorded eosin Y poorly. It is now rarely used. Compare the structural formulae of some eosin homologues.

 

Reference
R. D. Lillie.
Conn's Biological Stains
Williams & Wilkins, Baltimore, MD., U.S.A.

Edward Gurr, (1971)
Synthetic dyes in biology, medicine and chemistry
Academic Press, London, England.

Aldrich chemical catalogue, 1992
Aldrich Chemical Company, Milwaukee, WI, USA.

Susan Budavari, Editor, (1996)
The Merck Index, Ed. 12
Merck & Co., Inc., Whitehouse Station, NJ, USA