The use of non-plant and plant-derived anesthetics in aquaculture activities is a frequent and necessary practice to maintain fish welfare. Currently anesthetics authorized for use in aquaculture activities are limited, and the use of unauthorized products is common. However, to obtain authorization for use in aquaculture and ensure their safety, anesthetics should be evaluated for their genotoxic potential. Our objective was to evaluate the genotoxicity of three not approved anesthetics commonly used in aquaculture using Astyanax lacustris and Oreochromis niloticus. Both fish species were exposed to six treatments: two with commercial anesthetics (benzocaine and eugenol), one with Lippia alba essential oil (EO), and three controls - negative (without treatment), vehicle (ethanol PA), and positive (cyclophosphamide). Fishes were exposed to all treatments in a water bath for 10 min and were transferred to individual aquariums without anesthetics or controls. Venipuncture of the caudal vein was performed 72 h after the exposure to the anesthetics. Nuclear abnormalities and the micronucleus were analyzed in blood smears, and DNA damage was assessed using comet assay. No genotoxicity effects were verified for fishes exposed to L. alba EO. Eugenol presented genotoxicity to both species. The comet assay showed increased DNA damage in both species induced by benzocaine and eugenol. Thus, L. alba EO was proven to be the safest anesthetic resulting in no genotoxicity and, therefore, may be an interesting alternative to commercial anesthetics used in aquaculture. However, a complete toxicological evaluation is necessary to ensure the safety of its use as an anesthetic.

在水产养殖活动中使用非植物和植物衍生的麻醉剂是维持鱼类福利的一种常见且必要的做法。目前，授权用于水产养殖活动的麻醉药受到限制，未经授权的产品使用很普遍。但是，为了获得在水产养殖中使用的许可并确保其安全性，应评估麻醉剂的遗传毒性潜力。我们的目的是评估三种未经批准的麻醉剂的遗传毒性，这些麻醉剂是使用乳孢霉和尼罗罗非鱼进行水产养殖的。两种鱼类都接受了六种处理：两种使用商业麻醉剂（苯佐卡因和丁子香酚），一种使用白头翁精油（EO）和三个对照-阴性（未经处理），媒介物（乙醇PA）和阳性（环磷酰胺）。将鱼在水浴中暴露于所有处理下10分钟，然后转移到没有麻醉剂或对照的单独水族馆中。麻醉后72小时进行尾静脉静脉穿刺。分析血液涂片中的核异常和微核，并使用彗星试验评估DNA损伤。没有证明对暴露于白蜡球菌EO的鱼类有遗传毒性作用。丁香酚对两个物种均具有遗传毒性。彗星试验显示，苯佐卡因和丁子香酚引起的两种物种的DNA损伤均增加。因此，L。alba事实证明，EO是最安全的麻醉剂，不会产生基因毒性，因此，可能是水产养殖中使用的商业麻醉剂的一种有趣替代品。但是，必须进行完整的毒理学评估，以确保将其用作麻醉剂的安全性。