Acute toxicity of organic solvents on Artemia salina.

Abstract

Organic solvents can make their way into the environment as industrial wastes and components of pesticide formulation. In laboratory bioassays, the use of organic formulations. In laboratory bioassays, the use of organic solvents is often unavoidable, since many pesticides and organic pollutants have low water solubility and must be dissolved in organic solvents prior to addition into experimental systems. In the toxicant bioassays, invertebrates with special reference to aquatic arthropod species are of recent interest as test models due to the need for developing nonmammalian test systems. Toxic effects of organic solvents have been tested with a few aquatic species, but information on the comparative toxicity of solvents towards Artemia salina is not available. Artemia salina have, within recent years, gained popularity as test organisms for short-term toxicity testing. Because Artemia salina exhibit rapid development and growth within 48 hr after hatch, their potential as a model organism for toxicology screening has been considered. To do this, synchronous populations of Artemia salina at different development intervals must be available.