an aprotic solvent which dissolves both polar and nonpolar compounds. However, the separation of carmine and carminic acid was not achieved by this solvent. Therefore, sodium hydroxide solution was selected for the extraction of carmine in food samples. It is also supported by the reports that aluminium lake dyes in foods and drugs were efficiently extracted with 0.02 M sodium hydroxide solution (Ishikawa et al., 2003; Yang & Shao, 2011).