Antibiotics Amoxicillin, Ampicillin and Their Mixture—Impact on Bacteria, Fungi, Ostracods and Plants

Abstract

Ampicillin (AMP) and amoxicillin (AMX) are popular antibiotics, which are penicillin derivatives, and are used in both human and veterinary medicine. In the conducted study, AMP, AMX and their mixtures did not cause major changes in the total bacterial counts in soil samples, and even an increase in the bacterial counts from 3,700,000 to 6,260,000 colony-forming units (cfu) per gram of soil dry weight (g of soil DW) was observed for minimal amounts of these drugs in the soil. The total abundance of fungi, on the other hand, increased from values ranging from 17,000 to 148,000 cfu∙g−1 of soil DW to a level of 32,000 to 131,000 cfu∙g−1 of soil DW. The tested antibiotics and their mixtures had no significant effect on the mortality and growth of H. incongruens. AMX and the AMP + AMX mixture also showed no effect on the plant fresh weight yield, plant aboveground part length and dry weight content of wheat seedlings. In contrast, AMP caused an increase in the plant fresh weight yield and wheat seedling length compared to the control. The drug also caused a slight decrease in the seedling dry weight content. Both AMP and AMX showed inhibitory effects on the plant root length at the highest concentrations of the compounds.