Do You Know All 17 Of The Most Toxic Reagents In The Lab（two）

EB: EB (Ethidium bromide, bromide)

Ethidium bromide is a highly sensitive fluorescent stain used to observe DNA in agarose and polyacrylamide gels. Ethidium bromide The most common way to observe DNA in agarose gels is to stain them with the fluorescent dye ethidium bromide, which contains a tricyclic plane group that can be embedded between the DNA's accumulated bases.

 Ethidium bromide is a strong mutagenic agent with high carcinogenicity! It will evaporate at 60-70 ° C (so it is best not to add it when the glue is too hot, or it should be added to the liquid, 0.5ug/ml, dyeing for half an hour) (When excessive EB is added, the dyed gel can also be soaked in water at room temperature for 20min to reduce the background fluorescence caused by unbound EB).

Purification treatment of ethidium bromide solution: Because ethidium bromide has certain toxicity, after the end of the experiment, the solution containing EB should be purified and disposed of to avoid environmental pollution and harm to human health.

(1) For the solution with EB content greater than 0.5mg/ml, it can be treated as follows:
① Dilute EB solution with water to a concentration less than 0.5mg/ml;
② Add 0.5mol/L KMnO4, mix well, then add an equal amount of 25mol/L HCl, mix well, and leave at room temperature for several hours;
③ Add 2.5mol/L NaOH of one time volume, mix well and discard.

(2) The solution with EB content less than 0.5mg/ml can be treated as follows:
①Add activated carbon at the dosage of 1mg/ml, shake and mix gently from time to time, and place at room temperature for 1 hour;
② Filter with filter paper and seal the activated carbon with filter paper before discarding.