Two common freshwater algae Microcystis aeruginosa and Scenedesmus obliquus were employed as test organism to evaluate the toxic effects of the widely used antibiotic, cefradine. In general, cefradine had significantly toxic effect on population growth and chlorophyll-a accumulation of two algae and the cyanophyceae was more sensitive than the chlorophyceae. In addition, cefradine UV light degraded products had adverse effect on M. aeruginosa's growth and chlorophyll-a accumulation. In comparison, even if S. obliquus had growth ability when exposed to cefradine UV light-degradation products, the algal photosynthesis function was also disrupted. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.