[Histonet] Re: Nuclear fast red

[Robert Richmond]

Sarah Jones at Dako responds - and Sarah, please forgive me for
quoting you onto Histonet, but this seems to me to be a public
message:

> Brazilliant will soon not be available for some time.  The government in the
> state of Pernambuco in Brazil has declared a 10 year moratorium on the
> felling of the Pernambuco trees from which this dye is made.  This took
> place in September of 2007, if I remember correctly.  Violin bows are also
> made from this tree.  I was doing some work here at Dako trying to use it in
> place of Nuclear Fast Red.  But when I learned of this moratorium (at the
> Biological Stain Commission Annual Meeting in June of 2008), I stopped
> working on it.  I believe I sent you some of my photomicrographs taken at
> that time.  I never heard back from you, so I thought you lost interest.  I
> can send them to you again if you want me to.  Just let me know.

And Allen Smith responded:

> I have used brazalum, made by substituting brazilin for hematoxylin in the recipe for Mayer's hemalum. It stains nuclei a slightly deeper red than nuclear fast red.  Colorfastness is excellent.  I have 40-year old slides stained with brazalum that still look as they did on the day I made them.
> Allen A. Smith, Ph.D.
> Barry University School of Podiatric Medicine
**********************
I think this clarifies the problem. I would hope that something could
be worked out with the Brazilian government for the very small amount
of brazil wood histologists require, but the Brazilian government has
been difficult about issues like this - see a number of citations in
Science over the last few years.

Sarah, I was much impressed by your photomicrographs of stains with
brazalum nuclear counterstaining, and I apologize for having failed to
reply earlier.

Bob Richmond
Samurai Pathologist
Knoxville TN