Laboratory models to evaluate phytotoxicity of sulphadimethoxine on terrestrial plants

Abstract Antimicrobial drugs soil contamination is a possible side effect of spreading animal wastes from intensive farming on arable land: waste often contain persistent drugs (like sulphonamides) that pollute soil. In laboratory tests different crop plants and weeds demonstrated, on both synthetic medium and soil, toxicity and sulphadimethoxine bioaccumulation. These data suggest potential adverse implications for organisms higher up the food net, including humans. The increasingly used technique of'soil top dressing will impose the monitoring of antimicrobial contamination in arable lands and their crops, to protect natural ecosystems and consumer. A possible tool for this monitoring is the use of weeds that can constitute a “mesh” where antimicrobial contamination can be detected.