Multivariate Data Analysis of Various Biological Test Systems Used for the Quantification of Ecotoxic Compounds

Abstract

AbstractThe toxic effects of ecotoxicologically relevant chemicals (phenols, anilines, aliphatic hydrocarbons) have been determined using several in vitro testing procedures which are assumed to represent relevant biological systems. These test systems selected within a collaborative study supply information about toxic effects on different levels of interference with ecosystems. Other selection criteria were reliability of the procedures, exact quantification of the observed effects, and low cost. Subsequently the toxicity data obtained in the different biological systems for more than 50 phenol‐, aniline derivatives and hydrocarbons were used to derive quantitative structure‐toxicity relationships. The regression equations obtained were compared. For all biosystems under study a dependence of toxic potency on the lipophilic properties of the compounds was found. With the same data set principal component analysis has been performed and the results give evidence that the ranking of toxicants is similar in the different testing systems used.These results are further supported by the analysis of literature data from test systems of various complexity.