Toxicidad de cuatro solventes orgánicos sobre tres estadios de desarrollo larvario de Artemia salina

Laburpena

In the toxicity bioassays, invertebrates with special reference to aquatic arthropod species are for recent interest as test models due to the need for developing nonmammalian test systems. Artemia salina have, within recent years gained popularity as test organisms of short-term toxicity testing. 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. The purpose of the present study is to compare the acute toxicity of dimethylsulfoxide, methanol, ethanol and acetonitrile towards three ages of Artemia salina (24-, 48- and 72 hours old) in order to identify solvents with low toxicity for use in bioassays. The results obtained show that acetonitrile was the most toxic solvents tested (LC50 24 hr of 640.95, 521.47 and 399.65 mg/L respectively), and DMSO is the least toxic (LC50 24 hr of 6825.29, 6711.92 and 6539.27 mg/L respectively). Relative to the variability in different ages of Artemia salina larvae sensitivity to a particular solvent, only there are statistically significant differences between the toxicities of ethanol and acetonitrile to Artemia salina 72- and 24 hours old.