부산대학교 도서관

Schistosomiasis is a debilitating chronic disease with great socioeconomic and public health impact affecting the poor rural populations who lack access to sanitation, and safe water supply. The high cost of synthetic molluscicides, their toxicity to non-target organisms, and their persistence in the environment have forced the research of plant-derived molluscicides. Although plant molluscicides are cheap, biodegradable, ecofriendly and less toxic to higher animals, unregulated applications could affect non˗target organisms. Therefore, ecotoxicological studies are essential to assess the toxicity of these substances to economically and ecologically significant fish species and to establish safe dosage level. This study is intended to investigate the acute toxicity of a molluscicidal plant Achyranthes aspera to Nile tilapia fingerlings, Oreochromis niloticus (O. niloticus) (n = 7) were exposed to serial dilutions of A. aspera leaf aqueous extract using maceration method for 96 h in triplicate setup. Phytoconstituents were identified by GC-MS. Mortality data were analyzed by probit regression to determine lethal concentrations. The NOAEC was ascertained through hypothesis testing based on survival data. The respective piscicidal LC1 and LC10 values were 897.43 and 1063.87 mg/L while the LC50 is 1310.74 mg/L. In addition, the NOAEC was 1100 mg/L (p > 0.05). This piscicidal toxicity is much lower than its molluscicidal potency may be due to the presence of rotenones and triterpenoides which are commonly found in piscicidal natural products. The GC-MS analysis revealed 12 phytoconstituents including a monoterpene. This study indicates that A. aspera has low toxicity to Nile tilapia could be due to monoterpenes are nontoxic. The findings of this study demonstrate that, at this dose, the plant is safe to the test fish. Thus it can be effective, eco-friendly and sustainable alternative for the development of molluscicides for snail control.