Effect of different concentrations and application time of vitamin B12 on antioxidant response of Physiophora alceae

Pharmaceutical waste and food contaminants have direct and indirect effects on quality of life and even ecosystem structure and function. The existence of the ecosystem concept leads to the interaction between living organisms and the environment, where the power distribution capacity can occur and influence the ecological concept such as the food chain, ecological pyramids and the food web. Physiophora alceae is present with vegetable residues and helps in their decomposition. The presence of a decomposing environment may lead to oxidative stress for the insect. There are plenty of exogenous antioxidants that are being used, especially Vitamin B12 to reduce oxidative stress and restore the balance between antioxidants and oxidants in the insect. In this study, the ability of P. alceae insects to be used as a bioremediation tool for drug and plant residues as well as to evaluate the use of vitamin B12 in adult P. alceae insects to reduce the physiological effects of oxidative stress markers on the insect was examined. Adult P. alceae insects were treated with commercial vitamin B12. The first group (250 insects) was treated with different concentrations (0.125, 0.25, 0.5, 1 μg/ml) of B12 for 6 hours and the second group (250 insects) was treated with 2 μg/ml of B12 for different periods of time (1, 2, 3, 4 hours). The results indicated that there was an almost identical trend between different times and B12 concentrations on the oxidative stress parameters examined, and the correlation factor between O₂ and H₂O₂ showed a high positive correlation of 0.921. These results confirmed that treating insects with vitamin B12 increases their ability to reduce oxidative stress factors and increase the ability of insects to use them in biological treatment of drug and plant residues.