This technology quantitatively assesses water toxicity by placing water samples into a culture vessel, introducing dormant duckweed turions to germinate, and measuring the length of the newly grown roots. It compares concentration-dependent responses by testing diluted raw water at various dilution ratios alongside a non-toxic control medium.
Previous methods, such as directly measuring pollutant concentrations in organisms or identifying the presence of specific species, struggled to quantify pollution levels. Furthermore, ecotoxicity tests using animals or microalgae often required specialized expertise, long incubation periods, and lacked sufficient sensitivity.
This technology uses a single numerical indicator—root length—to identify the effects of heavy metals like silver, cadmium, mercury, and lead, as well as organic toxins like acetone, phenol, and formalin, within approximately three days. By using a dilution series created through half-dilution, it can also determine the concentration-dependency of toxicity. Applicable to public water monitoring networks, wastewater treatment plant effluent management, and environmental risk assessments, it allows for the numerical comparison of complex toxicity from unknown sources without the need for instrumental analysis.
This invention was developed through the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy's project for the development of standard technologies for aquatic ecological risk bio-diagnosis and support for international certification.
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