Toxicity of Neonicotinoid Pesticides

Pesticides are the pollutants increasingly present in the surrounding environment, which are often persistent and can be bio accumulated through the biological chains such as soil-plant-food or water-aquatic organism-food. Imidacloprid is a nicotine derived compound (neonicotinoid) with a large potential distribution due to its agonistic action on insect nAChRs and its selective toxicity to insects over vertebrates. Liver is associated with metabolism and elimination of toxicants from the body and its histological and biochemical parameters are considered as key points to elucidate toxicity of the chemicals. Imidacloprid is also known to cause oxidative stress and inflammation in liver in non-target organisms.