It is used in making chemicals, as a preservative in diagnostic medicines and blood tests, as a herbicide, fungicide and soil fumigant, and is the propellant used for inflating automobile air bags
Xylene cyanol can be used as an electrophoretic color marker, or tracking dye, to monitor the process of agarose gel electrophoresis and polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Bromophenol blue and orange G can also be used for this purpose.
