The Use of Citronella Oil (Cymbopogon nardus (L.) Rendle) to Replace Xylene as a Clearing Agent in Tissue Processing

Abstract

Clearing is the process of removing alcohol from the tissue so that paraffin can bind to the tissue. If the tissue still contains alcohol the paraffin cannot bind to the tissue, the tissue will be “ripe on the outside, raw on the inside” and can cause the tissue to be difficult to cut. Xylene   is a chemical that is often used in the clearing process, although effective, the use of Xylene   has adverse effects on health and is expensive. Therefore, citronella oil is expected to be used as a substitute for Xylene   with lower health effects. Citronella oil contains essential oils, the most common compound found in essential oils is terpene. Terpene is a non-polar isolate, non-polar isolates can attract alcohol because alcohol is polar. This study aims to determine whether or not there is a difference in the microscopic picture of preparations that are cleared using Xylene   and lemongrass oil in tissue processing. This research was conducted at the Cytohistotechnology Laboratory of the Department of Medical Laboratory Technology of the Poltekkes Kemenkes Surabaya and the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine Airlangga University on January 26-February 25, 2024. The study was processed using kruskal wallis and mann whitney tests with the results of p = 0.056 > α 0.05, so there were no differences in the quality of hepatic histology preparations of mice. Preparations cleared with Xylene   as many as 9 (56.25%) preparations can be said to be good and 7 (43.75%) preparations can be said to be less good. While preparations that are cleared using citronella oil as much as 3 (18.75%) can be said to be good and 13 (81.25%) preparations can be said to be less good. Although there is no difference between the two groups, preparations cleared using Xylene   are still better.