Assessment of Pesticide Induced Food Toxicity on Progesterone Levels in Female Albino Rats
Eshita Pandey *
Department of Zoology, Dayanand Girls P.G. College, Kanpur, U.P., India.
Zeba Afroz
Department of Zoology, Dayanand Girls P.G. College, Kanpur, U.P., India.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Stress is considered to be an unavoidable phenomenon that is experienced by individuals of all ages and from different walk of life. It is the body’s response to any real or imagined danger that leads to a number of physical and emotional changes in an individual. Stress is caused by stressors and there are several types of stressors present in nature like food toxicants, prolonged exposure of light, high intensity of light and contaminated water. Among all of this food toxicity is the key stress for every organism. This study focusses on the effect of acute stress of food toxicity on progesterone hormone so as to check the impact of toxicity of pesticides on food, using malathion as a representative of toxicants. The study utilizes malathion as an organophosphate pesticide. The study was conducted in two phases where acute stress in one phase was followed by withdrawal of stress in the second phase. ELISA, t-test and ANOVA were applied to compare significant changes.
Keywords: Food toxicity, stress, malathion, pesticide, progesterone, reproductive health