Which alcohol is primarily used for dehydration in the laboratory!

The primary alcohol used for dehydration in the laboratory context is ethyl alcohol, also known as ethanol. Ethanol is frequently utilized in histopathology as a dehydrating agent during the tissue processing procedure. When tissues are prepared for embedding in paraffin, they need to be dehydrated to remove water content. Ethanol is effective in this role because it can easily replace water in the tissue, allowing for the subsequent infiltration of the tissues with paraffin wax, which is essential for proper embedding and sectioning.

Ethanol is favored due to its ability to penetrate tissues effectively and its compatibility with both the embedding media and the staining processes that follow. This makes it an optimal choice for histological preparations. It also has relatively low toxicity compared to some other alcohols and is readily available.

While other alcohols like isopropyl alcohol may have similar applications in various contexts, they are not the primary choice for dehydration in histopathology due to factors like effectiveness in water removal and compatibility with other laboratory processes.