IS MONO SODIUM GLUTAMATE SALT (MSG) HARMFUL TO LIVING SYSTEMS?

Author(s): Batul Shabbir, Zehra Fatima, VVenugopal Rao and Shoba Ganesh

Abstract

Monosodium glutamate (MSG), also known as sodium glutamate, is the sodium salt of glutamic acid, one of the most abundant naturally occurring non-essential amino acids. A widespread and silent killer that’s worse for your health than alcohol, nicotine and many drugs is likely lurking in your kitchen cabinets right now. “It” is monosodium glutamate (MSG), a flavor enhancer that’s known widely as an addition to Chinese food, but that’s actually added to thousands of the foods you and your family regularly eat, especially if you are like most of the people who eat the majority of your food as processed foods or in restaurants. MSG is one of the worst food additives on the market and is used in canned soups, crackers, meats, salad dressings, frozen dinners and much more. It’s found in your local supermarket and restaurants, in your child’s school cafeteria and, amazingly, even in baby food and infant formula. We tested the efficacy of toxicity of MSG on certain living cells (epithelial cells of buccal cavity, blood cells, onion root tips) and DNA extracted from onions. We found that at low concentrations the salt does no harm whatsoever but as concentration is increased (10% and above) harmful effects like disintegrating nuclei and malformed cells were observed. Therefore we conclude that though it has no effects at low concentration, it may harm the living system if consumed without any inhibition at high concentrations (daily eating of fast foods and processed foods) or via accumulation of salt in the system resulting in high concentration over a period of time.

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