Assessment of Toxicity of Coragen, an Insecticide, on Aquatic Ecosystem Using Hydra as a Model

Abstract

Overuse of insecticides, without analyzing their harmful effects, can cause serious environmental issues. Coragen is a commonly used insecticide due to its broad range activity. In spite of enormous use, there are hardly any reports on the effects of coragen on non-target aquatic species and thus the environmental risk of coragen to aquatic ecosystem is underestimated. The present study was carried out to evaluate the potential risk of coragen on the water bodies and the life therein using hy dra, a fresh water simple diploblastic invertebrate, as the model system. Coragen was found to reduce the life expectancy of hydra along with the reduced ability to regenerate at various tried doses. The present study thus suggests precocious use of coragen due to its harmful effects on aquatic animals at v ery low concentrations also. The continued overuse of coragen may disturb the aquatic ecosystems at a large scale in long run.