Because of this, it can be useful in physiology in estimating the proportion of body water contained in blood plasma.

[2] Evans blue dye has been used as a viability assay on the basis of its penetration into non-viable cells, although the method is subject to error because it assumes that damaged or otherwise altered cells are not capable of repair and therefore are not viable.

[4] When the blood–brain barrier has been compromised, albumin-bound Evans blue enters the CNS.

Evans blue is pharmacologically active, acting as a negative allosteric modulator of the AMPA and kainate receptors and as an inhibitor of vesicular glutamate transporters.

[7] It was named after Herbert McLean Evans, an American anatomist.