Scientific rationale of hospital discharge as a sustainable source of irrigation water: Detection, phytological assessment and toxicity verification

Abstract

Hospital discharge (HD) represents the primary point source of pharmaceutical components that may constitute not only a sharp risk of phytotoxic effects in food crops, but leaving behind the toxicity implications to the environment. The present work has been oriented to the scientific assessment of pharmaceutical compounds in HD. The phenological, physiological, and morphological changes, oxidative stress biomarkers, antioxidative responses, bioaccumulation and bioconcentration factor in relation to different concentrations of HD-induced irrigation in Ipomoea aquatica were evaluated; while the cytotoxicity and genotoxicity on human hepatocellular carcinoma (HepG2) cell were assessed. Acetaminophen, metoprolol, atenolol, enalapril, and metformin were predominantly detected in the raw HD and bioaccumulated in I. aquatica. Concentration-dependent phenological inhibition, chlorophylls reductions, morphological distortions, reactive oxygen species generation, and antioxidant enzymes upregulation were recorded in the HD-irrigated I. aquatica. Drastic reductions in cell viability and increase of tail damage and tail moment indicated the metabolic alterations of mitochondrial function, and deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) damage via oxidative stress and DNA adducts formation in the HD-treated groups. The diluted HD at 5% and 10 % could be feasibly reused for food crops irrigation, verified by the negligible phytotoxic implications in the plant model, bioaccumulation, and cytotoxic and genotoxic effects in HepG2 cell.