Table 4.

Toxicity (EC₅₀ value) of CuSO₄ and nano-CuO to different organisms in their conventional test or cultivation media. Free Cu at EC₅₀-s was calculated according to Cu-ISE.

Media	Test organism	EC50mg Cu/L	free Cu at EC50, mg Cu/L
Test compound: CuSO4
Osterhout’s medium	Tetrahymena thermophila	1.6 a	1.1
AFW1	Daphnia magna	0.07 b	0.49
AFW2	Thamnocephalus platyurus	0.044 b	0.1
Algal medium	Pseudokirchneriella subcapitata	0.02 c	0.15
Malt extract (ME)	Saccharomyces cerevisiae	11.4 d	1.97
YPD	Saccharomyces. cerevisiae	368 e	6.4
2% NaCl	Vibrio fisheri	0.64 f	1.88
M9 + 0.5%AA	Escherichia coli	83.5 g	0.97
0.9% NaCl	Escherichia coli	1.22 g	2.66
0.9% NaCl + 0.1%AA	Escherichia coli	3.84 h	0.19
Test compound: nano-CuO
Malt extract (ME)	Saccharomyces cerevisiae	16.6 d	11.1
0.9% NaCl + 0.1%AA	Escherichia coli	40.4 h	90.2

^a[19]; 24-h mortality test;

^b[18]; 48-h mortality test;

^c[46]; 72-h growth inhibition test;

^d[54]; 8-h growth inhibition test;

^eK. Kasemets, personal communication; 8-h growth inhibition test;

^f[18]; 30-min bioluminescence inhibition test;

^g[29]; 30-min bioluminescence inhibition assay with recombinant E. coli;

^h[21]; 30-min bioluminescence inhibition test; AA—Cas-amino acids.