Toxicity Test on Different Brands of Food Seasonings Using Brine Shrimp (Artemia salina) Lethality Test

Kenneth Dave B. Borja, Vhebs Terez L. Buhion and Everlita E. Canalita

Abstract:

Toxicity testing is performed to assess the safety or hazards presented by substances such as consumer products, pharmaceuticals, natural products and industrial chemicals. Many of the current toxicity test methods include the use of laboratory animals such as mice, rats or rabbits, however in this study lower species of test organisms were used – the Artemia salina, which are commonly called brine shrimp.

This study was conducted to test for the toxicity potential of three different brands of commercially sold food seasonings using brine shrimp lethality test. This is an assay that will determine the toxicity potential of a substance using the mortality rate of brine shrimp nauplii and identify the median lethal concentration (LC₅₀) using regression line analysis .Ten (10) brine shrimp nauplii were exposed to the three different brands of commercially sold food seasonings in the Philippines with three different concentrations (10, 100, and 1000 ppm) of the test solutions. Each concentration was replicated thrice. The mortality rate of brine shrimps exposed to each brand was determined and recorded within a 24-hour period.

Statistical analysis using two-way ANOVA showed that there is no significant interaction between the brands of artificial food seasonings and their respective concentrations. It showed further that there is no significant difference in the mortality rate of brine shrimps among the three different brands of food seasonings; however, significant difference existed among the three concentrations. The highest mortality rate was observed at 1000 ppm while the lowest mortality rate was observed at 10 ppm for all brands. As the concentration increases, mortality rate of brine shrimp increases. In addition, regression line analysis showed that Brand A, Brand B, and Brand C have an LC₅₀ of 535 ppm, 542 ppm, and 438 ppm, respectively. This implies that the substance has an ingredient that could affect the activity of brine shrimp cells.

Keywords: Toxicity, Median Lethal Concentration (LC₅₀), Brine Shrimp Lethality Test (BSLT).

Pages: 227 – 233 | Full PDF Paper