Re: Oil of cajeput

From:"J. A. Kiernan"

The physical properties of oil of cajeput are given in the
Merck Index and in Gray's "Microtomist's Formulary & Guide."
(It mixes well with either paraffin or real Canada balsam;
RI=1.47.)

You can certainly use xylene and a synthetic mountant after
staining by Cajal's gold-sublimate method or its variants.

According to Gray, essential oils were used for clearing
in the days when you couldn't always get 100% alcohol.
Some of them will tolerate traces of water. For the same
reason, phenol was often added to clearing agents, because
it can enable mixing of otherwise immiscible liquids.
-- 
-------------------------
John A. Kiernan
Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology
The University of Western Ontario
London,   Canada   N6A 5C1
   kiernan@uwo.ca
   http://publish.uwo.ca/~jkiernan/
________________________________________

Hermina Borgerink wrote:
> I have been asked to stain for astrocytes, using the antibody for GFAP (Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein), as well as the actual stain.  There are various procedures in Sheehan and Hrapchak for the demonstration of astrocytes and their processes using parrafin sections in addtition to the gold standard: Cajal's gold sublimate method using frozen sections.  However, if possible, I would prefer to start of with paraffin sections.  But there is a slight problem:  both methods call for clearing in oil of cajeput, and in my 40+ years in histology, I have never heard of this clearing agent.  I would appreciate any information anyone may have to enlighten me.



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