Impact of selected drugs and their binary mixtures on the germination of Sorghum bicolor (sorgo) seeds

Abstract

The aim of this study was to assess the toxicological potential of binary drug mixtures and individual drugs under different pH conditions with different inorganic ion additions on the germination of Sorghum bicolor (sorgo) seeds. To assess whether the given drug mixtures were more phytotoxic than the individual compounds, concentration addition (CA) and independent action (IA) approaches were applied to estimate the predicted phytotoxicity values, followed by calculations of the MDR (model deviation factor) to determine the deviation from the predicted values. Binary mixtures of chloramphenicol with ketoprofen, diclofenac sodium, and oxytetracycline hydrochloride proved to be synergistic. The pH changes had the largest impact on the phytotoxicity of the diclofenac sodium and ketoprofen solutions, elevating their toxicity toward S. bicolor, and the co-presence of inorganic ions was shown to have an impact on ketoprofen, chloramphenicol, and oxytetracycline hydrochloride. Most of the interactions between sorgo plants and pharmaceuticals with added ions were antagonistic in nature, particularly those calculated using the IA model, with a few cases (one case for ketoprofen and chloramphenicol, two cases for oxytetracycline hydrochloride, and four cases for diclofenac sodium) of overestimation.