An Overview on Common Organic Solvents and Their Toxicity

Abstract

Organic solvents are known as carbon-based solvents and their general property is primarily based on their volatility, boiling point, the molecular weight and color. Having enormous hazards associated with the organic solvents, they are used for millions of purposes which alert us to think more on its toxicity points. Almost all of the solvents are hazardous to health, if swallowed or inhaled more than the limit quantity and on contact to the skin most of them cause irritation. Some of the common solvents are acetone, ethyl acetate, hexane, heptane, dichloromethane, methanol, ethanol, tetrahydrofuran, acetonitrile, dimethylformamide, toluene, dimethylsulfoxide etc. Researchers, scientists, workers in the chemical industry and research institutes use these solvents on regular basis leading them to be affected in major aspects. But also, the nearby persons are affected by the contamination to the soil, water, air etc. If constantly exposed with solvents, it will badly affect the function of CNS and other body parts. The level of impact, sign and symptoms will depend on concentration, time, duration, frequency and nature of solvents, leading to common effects like headache, dizziness, tiredness, blurred vision, behavioral changes, unconsciousness, and even(Zimmermann, Mayer et al. 1985) death. To overcome it, the green chemistry concept is growing rapidly, and the solvent selection guide is in practice in many big company and research institute. A researcher or chemical worker is the primary person who works with solvents and they need to consider throughout these things while performing their activities for their own good health and for the sake of the world. The purpose of this review is to provide needed basic knowledge about common organic solvents and their potential toxicities which will alert researchers to think twice and always think for their health as well as for the environment via safe and green practice.

Evaluation of Downstream Processing, Extraction, and Quantification Strategies for Single Cell Oil Produced by the Oleaginous Yeasts Saitozyma podzolica DSM 27192 and Apiotrichum porosum DSM 27194

“…For yeast cells, however chloroform-methanol extraction is still the most common method even though Èertík et al (1996) already showed that EH is also suitable for Mucor mucedo. In contrast to chloroform, hexane is non-carcinogenic but still neurotoxic (Joshi and Adhikari, 2019). After all, there is no alternative to hexane in lipid extraction (Breil et al, 2016).…”

Synthesis of Butyl-β-D-Galactoside in the Ternary System: Acetone/1-Butanol/Aqueous Solution

“…Therefore, the results in Table 1 can be explained considering that in the present work acetone, which was used as a cosolvent, probably reduced the thermal stability of A. oryzae β-galactosidase. Despite this disadvantage of using acetone as a co-solvent, it is worth mentioning that acetone also has desirable properties: it is miscible with water, it is an aprotic solvent that cannot act as an acceptor in transgalactosylation reactions, whereby unwanted parallel reactions are avoided, it can be produced from renewable raw materials, and it is generally classified as a green solvent ( Joshi and Adhikari, 2019 ). In addition, the adverse effect of acetone on enzyme stability decreases significantly at 30°C.…”

A short review of green extraction technologies for rice bran oil

“…These solvents are labeled as "recommended" or "preferred" in several guidelines, such as the GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) [86], Pfizer [87] Sanofi [88], AstraZeneca, and Green Chemistry Institute-Pharmaceutical Roundtable (GCI-PR) solvent guidelines. These guides deal with solvents from the safety, occupational health, environment, technical constraint, and cost perspectives [89].…”