The Lippia alba essential oil (EO) is a fish anesthetic immiscible in water and commonly used diluted in ethanol. We evaluated the effectiveness of surfactant use with Lippia alba EO in the anesthesia of Oreochromis niloticus, as well as its toxicity in fish and mammals. The EO was extracted by hydrodistillation and the fish were exposed to anesthesia at the concentration of 250 μL/L for 10 min with the surfactants polysorbate 20 (T20), polysorbate 80 (T80), polyethylene glycol (PEG), and ethanol. We also evaluated fish recovery and anesthetic safety margin after exposure for 10, 20, and 30 min. To assess the surfactants' toxicity in mammals, Mus musculus (mice) received the same treatments by gavage. The main constituents of the Lippia alba EO were linalool (42.36%), geraniol (12.46%), neral (10.7%), and limonene (7.45%). Deeper anesthesia was faster in the T20 (60 ± 2.9 s) and T80 (272 ± 21 s) treatment groups, while recovery time for T80 was longer (596 ± 47 s). All treatments showed a good safety margin, without mortality. The genotoxic effects caused by surfactants in mammals and fish were at similar levels to those found in the ethanol treatment. Therefore, this study demonstrated that the use of surfactants T20 and T80 in Oreochromis niloticus anesthesia presented neither a reduction nor a considerable increase of the toxicity when compared to the commonly used ethanol; however, an increase in anesthetic effectiveness was observed throughout the experiment.
Keywords: Cidreira; Emulsion; Genotoxicity; Mice; Polysorbate.