Toxicity Assessment of Ciprofloxacin On Triticum Aestivum

Abstract

Development of human society had led the progression in the field of medicine. To treat the bacterial infections in humans and animals antibiotics are used worldwide but these antibiotics are entering in the environment and making it vulnerable for other living organisms due to discharges of untreated wastewater from pharmaceutical industries as well as via excretion from the living organisms. Pakistan is a developing country and farmers are utilizing the wastewater for irrigation of crops which could be potentially harmful with respect to the productivity and human health. The present study is focused to assess the toxicity of antibiotic Ciprofloxacin (CIP) in Triticum aestivum (Wheat). For this purpose antibiotic levels used were 1, 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50µg/L and for comparison control experiment was treated with distilled water. Physical growth parameters like plant‘s biomass, root, shoot and total plant length were determined after exposure to different concentrations of CIP. Genotoxicity was assessed using comet assay while presence of antibiotic in plants was also detected. Ciprofloxacin has negative impacts on plant‘s biomass after exposure of 48 and 72 hours. Total plant length was also affected when CIP at different concentration was provided to plants. After 24 hours of exposure, the decrease in total plant length was 31% at highest concentration and after 48 and 72 hours of exposure, the decrease was 42% and 56% respectively. The results of comet assay showed that with the increase in exposure concentration and time, the percentage of damaged cells also increased. Tails produced by the damaged cell also positively correlated with the exposed concentration and time and it was observed that uptake of antibiotic is dependent on the concentration of exposed antibiotic. This study showed that antibiotics like Ciporfloxacin in our environment are toxic for the plants being directly irrigated with contaminated wastewater and could potentially be problematic for animals and

iii humans, consuming these plants. To avoid these issues wastewater should be treated properly before irrigation. New, simple and cheap methods of degrading antibiotics in wastewater should be developed. Proper legislation in environmental quality standards regarding antibiotics should be formulated and implemented.