New alternative wood preservatives contain higher levels of copper (Cu) which can promote aquatic toxicity in natural water systems. Earlier work focused on evaluating toxicity using laboratory generated leaching solutions. In this study, the impact on preservative leaching and aquatic toxicity from treated wood products was evaluated using natural surface waters including waters from two river...

Cyanobacteria are well known for their production of a multitude of highly toxic substances . The genus Stigomena is regarded as good candidates for producing biologically active secondary metabolites, which are highly toxic to humans and other animals. The carcass of a dog was found at the shore of Lake Ali-Abad, Iran. Biomass from the discovery site appeared to be of cyanobacterial nature. We...

Secondary compounds in fruit mediate interactions with natural enemies and seed dispersers, influencing plant survival and species distributions. The functions of secondary metabolites in plant defenses have been well-studied in green tissues, but not in reproductive structures of plants. In this study, the distribution of toxicity within plants was quantified and its influence on seed survival...

Medicines obtained from natural sources have become the basis for pharmaceutical drugs. Traditional herbal medicines are naturally occurring plant derived substances; these have been used for treatment and cure of various diseases and as a nutraceuticals. Toxicological research and testing help to live safely and predict benefit from synthetic and natural substance while avoiding harm. The toxi...

The introduction of Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals (REACH), requires companies to register and risk assess all substances produced or imported in volumes of >1 tonne per year. Extrapolation methods which use existing data for estimating the effects of chemicals are attractive to industry, and comparative data are therefore increasingly in demand. Data on natural toxic c...