ACUTE TOXICITY OF PROMETHAZINE HYDROCHLORIDE ON Artemia salina NAUPLII

In the last years, there has been a worrying increase in the pollution of the aquatic ecosystem caused by residues a lot of emerging contaminants (ECs), such as, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, personal care products and endocrine disruptors compounds that have been detected in wastewater effluent discharges (Grassi et al., 2014; Zhang et al., 2018). Traces of ECs in waters are present in relatively low concentrations but with high toxicity and they can lead negative effects on the health of non-target organisms and the environment. Antihistamines are a class of drugs widely used, whose active ingredients or metabolites are globally widespread in surface waters and effluents, particularly in Europe and North America (Kristofco and Brooks, 2017). Some studies have evaluated the toxicity of antihistamines on model organisms such as Daphnia magna (Furuhagen et al., 2014) and Amphibalanus amphitrite (Jin et al., 2014). These works show that the antihistamines test on Dafnia magna can detect toxicity effects at low concentrations, while the studies on Amphibalanus amphitrite have been evaluating the antihistamines as possible use in products antifouling, as some nontoxic concentrations would still allow the larvae to metamorphose in the adult stage. We have evaluated the toxicity of Promethazine hydrochloride (99% pure), an antihistamine widely used and found in the analysis of wastewaters (Kostich et al., 2008). The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects caused by acute exposure (24h-48h; six concentrations range from 2,5 µg to 40 µg) on nauplii of Artemia salina, saltwater microcrustacean, widely used as a model organism to evaluate the impact of many contaminants (Pecoraro et al., 2020). The results showed a high percentage of mortality and morphological alterations of nauplii. These results allow us to compare endpoint values on different model organisms.