It is important that serum levels of 5-fluorocytosine (5FC) be measured to insure therapeutic levels while avoiding toxicity. This is particularly true in patients with renal insufficiency. The concurrent use of amphotericin B and 5FC complicates the measurement of 5FC in the serum, since fungi used in conventional bioassay systems are uniformly susceptible to amphotericin B. This paper describ...

The aim of this study was to investigate the acute toxicity of pulp-paper industry wastewater using traditional and enrichment toxicity tests and to emphasize the importance of toxicity tests in wastewater discharge regulations. Enrichment toxicity tests are novel applications and give an idea of whether there is potential toxicity or growth-limiting and -stimulating conditions. Different organ...

The assessment of the environmental footprint an organization or product is based on methods published by European Union Joint Research Centre, which take 16 impact areas into account. Among listed categories are human and freshwater ecosystem toxicities. Standard protocols utilize just chemical parameters as input data, hindering determination full complex mixes, such pollutants released envir...

There is an increasing demand for simple toxicological screening methods to assess the human health risk associated with exposure to environmental toxicants. Such screening tools should allow for risk evaluation in terms of both short-term/acute toxicity and longer-term genetic damage, which may lead to mutagenicity and carcinogenicity. We employed a battery of human cell bioassays using the hu...

Context: Medicinal plants contains some pesticidal activities that may control stored product insects. Objectives: To elucidate the insecticidal activity from the stem bark extracts of nishinda (Vitex negundo L.) and their toxicity against red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum (Herbst) (Tenebrionidae). Materials and Methods: The powdered stem bark (250 g) was extracted with methanol (MeOH), eth...

A total of 13 Photorhabdus luminescens strains were screened for proteolytic activity. The P. luminescens strain 0805-P5G had the highest activity on both skim milk and gelatin plates. The protease was purified to electrophoretical homogeneity by using a two-step column chromatographic procedure. It had a molecular weight of 51.8 kDa, as determined by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry. The optimum pH...

In this study, the first phase of Toxicity Identification Evaluation (TIE) was used to characterise the major toxicants present in a Malaysian landfill leachate, using multispecies bioassay. Freshwater fish (Rasbora sumatrana), freshwater prawn (Macrobrachium lanchesteri) and tomato seeds (Lycopersicon esculentum) were chosen as test species based on local availability, as well as their broad s...

A probabilistic risk assessment of the selected herbicides (diuron and prometryn) in the Gwydir River catchment was conducted, with the input of the EC₅₀ values derived from both literature and a novel bioassay. Laboratory test based on growth of algae exposed to herbicides assayed with a microplate reader was used to examine the toxicity of diuron and prometryn on the growth of Chlorella vulga...

Toxicity and temporal changes in toxicity of freshwater-marsh-microcosms containing South Louisiana Crude (SLC) or diesel fuel and treated with a cleaner or dispersant, were investigated using Chironomus tentans, Daphnia pulex, and Oryzias latipes. Bioassays used microcosm water (for D. pulex and O. latipes) or soil slurry (for C. tentans) taken 1,7, 31, and 186 days after treatment. SLC was le...

Alpha-cypermethrin, which is a synthetic pyrethroid pesticide and potential toxic pollutant, contaminating aquatic ecosystems was investigated in the present study for acute toxicity. Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) adults were selected for the bioassay experiments. The experiments were repeated three times and the 96-h LC50 value was determined for the adults. The static test method of ac...