पर्यावरण एवं विश्लेषणात्मक विष विज्ञान

Agrochemicals represent one of the most important sources of environmental pollution. Although attempts to reduce agrochemical use through organic agricultural practices and the use of other technologies to control pests continue, the problem is still unsolved. Recent technological advances in molecular biology and analytical science have allowed the development of rapid, robust, and sensitive diagnostic tests (biomarkers) that can be used to monitor exposure to, and the effects of pollution. One of the major goals of our research laboratory is to evaluate comparatively the genotoxic and cytotoxic effects exerted by several pure agrochemicals and their technical formulations commonly used in Argentina on vertebrate cellsin vitro and in vivo employing several end-points for geno and cytotoxicity. Among them are listed the herbicides dicamba and flurochloridone, the fungicide zineb, the insecticides pirimicarb and imidacloprid. Overall, the results clearly demonstrated that the damage induced by the commercial formulations is in general greater than that produced by the pure pesticides, suggesting the presence of deleterious components in the excipients with either a putative intrinsic toxic effect or with the capacity of exacerbating the toxicity of the pure agrochemicals, or both. Accordingly, the results highlight that: 1) A complete knowledge of the toxic effect/s of the active ingredient is not enough in biomonitoring studies; 2) Pesticide/s toxic effect/s should be evaluated assaying to the commercial formulation available in market; 3) The deleterious effect/s of the excipient/s present within the commercial formulation should not be either discarded nor underestimated, and 4) A single bioassay is not enough to characterize the toxicity of a agrochemical under study.

A new Liquid Chromatography Distillation (LCD) method was applied to determine Boiling Point Distribution (BPD) of heavy oils, which refer to the residual oil of petroleum, coal asphalts and coal direction-liquid residue, etc. Through a series of studies, the LCD method was established by the Size Exchange Chromatography (SEC) of liquid chromatography and the BPD of some typical heavy oils were determined. It is also reported that this method could be applied in other processes related with heavy oil, such as making high-level road asphalt, modification of coal liquefaction residues, and hydrogenation of heavy oil. In this paper, some other distillation technologies including hydrodistillation, molecular distillation and membrane distillation are also reviewed systematically.

Concerns about pesticide focus on insecticide resistance-but persistent changes to our intact diverse community could have more serious consequences.

An attempt was made to study the toxic nature of dye degraded product(s) which was degraded by previously isolated two potential strains namely Lysinibacillus sphaericus RSV-1 and stenotrophomonas maltophilia RSV-2. The phytotoxicity and cytotoxicity of degraded product(s) were tested on Triticum aestivum (co w) and human embryonic kidney cell line (HEK 293) respectively. Results revealed that the degraded product(s) was nontoxic in nature with respect to phytotoxicity as well as cytotoxicity study. Further the strains were utilized for the treatment of real textile dyewaste effluent and the result found that there was considerable reduction in Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) and Total Organic Carbon (TOC) of real textile effluent. Therefore the strains could be effectively utilized for the treatment of real textile dye effluent having high concentration of reactive dyes.

In the present study, cadmium and lead tolerant bacteria were isolated from contaminated crop field nearby industrial sites, garage and petrol pumps of Cachar District of Assam, India. Bacterial isolates were characterized on the basis of morphological, physiological, biochemical characteristics and 16S rDNA gene sequencing. In presence of cadmium, Pseudomonas aeruginosa SN1 and Pseudomonas aeruginosa SN3 showed the highest MIC for cadmium and lead. These two isolates were taken under consideration for pot experimental studies. After 20 days of seedling inoculation in Cd treated soil and application of P. aeruginosa SN1, it has been observed that rice plant (Oryza sativa L.) attains 10.1% (at 20 mg/kg Cd) and 18.6% (at 50 mg/kg Cd) increased shoot growth as compared to control pots without bacterial inoculation. P. aeruginosa SN1 and P. aeruginosa SN3, showed significant result at 20 mg/kg of lead in soil but, failed to show any significant response at 50 mg/kg of lead in soil. Overall study demonstrated that P. aeruginosa SN1 and P. aeruginosa SN3 could remediate cadmium and lead contaminated soil at concentration below 20mg/kg, thus dedicating sites which are set aside for long term agricultural purpose.

Chronic exposure to heavy metals including lead remains a serious problem for humanity. The current study aims to evaluate the impact of co-exposure to lead (Pb) and Efavirenz (EFV) on some biochemical parameters in blood. Twenty eight Wistar rats were divided equally into four groups respectively orally fed with lead acetate at 10 mg/kg (GPb), EFV at 20 mg/kg (GEfv), both xenobiotics (GPb+Efv), and distilled water (GCtrl). On Day 0 and Day 28, the blood of each animal was collected and biochemical assays were conducted. Data were processed with SPSS 16.0. The results showed a significant decrease in total proteinemia, albuminemia, serum calcium and iron as well as a significant increase in blood urea and uric acid in group exposed to lead. The aforementioned changes were more pronounced in group GPb+Efv. Besides, significant increases in total cholesterolemia were observed in GEfv and GPb+Efv. In contrast, changes in blood glucose and triglycerides were not significant. In conclusion, this study highlights a real problem of public health, in the light of thousands of patients receiving antiretroviral therapy and who are unintentionally exposed to heavy metals.

Water pollution issue has become one of the most important public awareness issues. The excessive use of the fertilizers and pesticides in agriculture with the threat of the chemicals in water and crops especially in the two north provinces of Iran is a major concern of Iranian environmental scientists. This project is a trial to find out the status of nitrate content in drinking water of two great provinces in the north of Iran. The objectives of the present research: Determination the level of nitrate (mg/L) in drinking water of some agricultural and industrial cities and comparing of the probable effects of different industrial factories on the level of nitrate in drinking water of them. The tap water samples of 60 different sites from Rasht , Bandar Anzali and Talesh in Gilan province and Sari, Behshar and Amol in Mazandaran province in three consequent months in summer season (July, August and September) in 2013, were collected and by spectroscopy method were determined. There are no wastewater collection, treatment and disposal system in these cities. Sampling was replicated twice within each month at intervals of two weeks and the mean value considered as a result of one sample. To evaluate variability of nitrate content within sub-samples, five sub-samples (900 sub-samples) on the whole were analyzed separately. The mean concentrations of NO3- (mg/L) in most examined water samples were lower than acceptable ranges (NO3- ≤ 50 (mg/L) and only 11% of all samples were higher than it. A highly significant, positive correlation was found between nitrate contents of the August and September drinking water samples , compared to July ones. Results shows a significant difference between locations (p<0.03) and in the different sites as nitrate content in drinking water in industrial locations were obviously higher than other locations in the cities.

The present study was designed to investigate the effect of lambda-cyhalothrin (LCH) on lipid peroxidation, oxidative stress biomarkers and the activity of Cytochrome P450 in male rats and the protective role of zinc. LCH was administrated orally to rats at dose 2.6 mg/kg b.wt. (Which represents 1/10 LD50) with 3 doses per week for 6 weeks (dose period). Rats were divided into four groups, eight rats for, each: (I) control group, (II) zinc group (Zn dose 227 mg/l in drinking water), (III) LCH-treated groups and LCH-Zn group (IV) as in group II and III. The present results demonstrated that LCH induced significant alteration in the activity of antioxidant enzymes (superoxide dismutase, SOD; catalase, CAT; glutathione-s-transferase, GST; glutathione peroxidase, GPx), glutathione reduced (GSH) and lipid peroxidation (LPO) levels and decreased cytochrome P450 (P450) activity in plasma of male rats. In contrast, zinc-LCH treatment showed insignificant difference, compared to control results, regarding LPO, GST, CAT and P450. LCH induced oxidative stress, lipid peroxidation and reduced P450 activity in the plasma of male rats. The overall results reveal the pronounced ameliorating effect of zinc in LCH-intoxicated rats.