Abstract

Although biosynthesized nanoparticles are regarded as green products, research on their toxicity to aquatic food chains is scarce. Herein, biosynthesized silver nanoparticles (Alcea rosea-silver nanoparticles, AR-AgNPs) were produced by the reaction of Ag ions with leaf extract of herbal plant Alcea rosea. Then, the toxic effects of AR-AgNPs and their precursors such as Ag+ ions and coating agent (A. rosea leaf extract) on organisms of different trophic levels of a freshwater food chain were investigated. To the three studied aquatic organisms including phytoplankton (Chlorella vulgaris), zooplankton (Daphnia magna) and fish (Danio rerio), the coating agents of AR-AgNPs showed no toxic effects, and Ag+ ions were more toxic in comparison to AR-AgNPs. Further investigations revealed that the release of Ag+ ions from AR-AgNPs to the test media were not considerable due to the high stability of AR-AgNPs, thus the toxicity stemmed mainly from the particles of AR-AgNPs in all the three trophic levels. Based on values of 72-h EC50 for C. vulgaris, 48-h LC50 for D. magna and 96-h LC50 for D. rerio, the most sensitive organism to AR-AgNPs exposure was D. magna (the second trophic level).

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