Chronic toxicity of a laundry detergent to the freshwater flagellate Euglena gracilis

Abstract

Chronic toxicity of the common laundry detergent Ariel on the freshwater alga Euglena gracilis was investigated by growing the alga in a medium containing the detergent for 7 days. Cell density, motility, swimming velocity, gravitactic orientation, cell shape, photosynthesis and concentration of light-harvesting pigments were used as end point parameters for the assessment of toxicity. Cell density was significantly reduced at a concentration of 1 mg l(-1) or above. Among the other tested parameters, with the exception of cell shape, gravitaxis and chlorophyll b, all were adversely affected by the detergent at concentrations exceeding 1 mg l(-1). It is concluded that long-term (7-days) exposure to the detergent caused significant toxicity to E. gracilis. Furthermore, long-term tests with E. gracilis can be used as sensitive indicator for the toxicity assessment of laundry detergents in aquatic environments.

Environmental monitoring using bioassays

“…Analysis of the input wastewater to the treatment plant using the ECOTOX instrument shows a significant pollution from mainly domestic effluents. As also found in other pollution analyses [48], gravitactic orientation (r-value) shows the highest inhibition of up to 30% at a 1:1 dilution of the sample (Fig. 21.5A).…”

Surfactant selection for a liquid foam‐bed photobioreactor

“…The fourth characteristic of a surfactant, which is essential for its application in a liquid foam‐bed photobioreactor is its toxicity to microalgae. The reported toxic effects of a surfactant on microalgal growth are a reduction in cell density, growth rate, cell motility, chlorophyll content, and the inhibition of the photosynthetic activity . The extent of this toxicity is dependent on surfactant type, concentration, and the microalgal species involved .…”

Pollutant Diseases, Remediation and Recycling

“…Growth inhibition and self accumulating effects were observed in duck weeds exposed to SDS (Diriligen and Ince 1995 ). Long-term (7-days) exposure to the detergent Ariel caused signifi cant toxicity to Euglena gracilis affecting its cell density, motility, swimming velocity and chlorophyll a content at a concentrations above 1 mg/L (Azizullah et al 2012 ). The photosynthetic ability of algae decreased exponentially with increasing surfactant concentration and decrease in algal biomass (Maksimov and Parshikova 2006 ), with cationic surfactants causing the most potent inhibition.…”