PERSISTENCE,BIOACCUMULATION AND TOXICITY OF AQUEOUS ORGANICS

Abstract

The fate and environmental behavior of non steroidal anti inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are explained in terms of its persistency in nature, its ability to accumulate in tissues of aquatic organisms and its ecotoxicological effects on aquatic organisms. For persistence study, Gas chromatograph mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analytical method was used for evaluating half life (t1/2) of NSAIDs diclofenac sodium and ibuprofen under different experimental conditions. Compound’s degradation follows first order kinetics. Maximum degradation was observed in non filtered samples in open receipts and minimum degradation was observed in filtered samples placed in dark, amber, closed conditions. Bioaccumulation and ecotoxicity of diclofenac sodium and ibuprofen has been evaluated using algal species Scenedesmus Abundans. Bioaccumulation was observed initially high but it tends to decrease with time due to increase in algal biomass concentration. Bioconcentration factor for ibuprofen found to be much more than for diclofenac sodium over test period of 16 days. Toxicity for algae was represented as half maximal effective concentration (EC50). EC50 values were 90.01 mg/L and 173.94 mg/L for diclofenac sodium and ibuprofen respectively. Evaluating all these three parameters, it was observed that diclofenac sodium is persistence in aquatic environment and toxic for tested algal species whereas ibuprofen is persistence in aquatic environment and very bioaccumulative in tested algal species. Keywords: Persistence, Bioaccumulation, Toxicity, Diclofenac sodium, ibuprofen, GC-MS, Scenedesmus Abundans.