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Determination of 5‐fluorocytosine, 5‐fluorouracil, and 5‐fluorouridine in hospital wastewater by liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry
Author(s) -
Škvára Pavel,
SantanaViera Sergio,
MontesdeocaEsponda Sarah,
Mordačíková Erika,
SantanaRodríguez José Juan,
Vojs Staňová Andrea
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of separation science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.72
H-Index - 102
eISSN - 1615-9314
pISSN - 1615-9306
DOI - 10.1002/jssc.202000144
Subject(s) - chromatography , wastewater , effluent , analyte , detection limit , mass spectrometry , liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry , chemistry , extraction (chemistry) , sample preparation , metabolite , tandem mass spectrometry , isotope dilution , sewage treatment , matrix (chemical analysis) , solid phase extraction , environmental science , biochemistry , environmental engineering
Chemotherapeutics are pharmaceutical compounds the occurrence of which in the environment is of growing concern because of the increase in treatments against cancer diseases. They can reach the aquatic ecosystems after passing through wastewater treatment plants without complete removal. One of the most frequently used chemotherapeutics is 5‐fluorouracil which exhibits a strong cytostatic effect. In this paper, an analytical methodology was developed, validated, and applied to determine 5‐fluorouracil, its precursor, 5‐fluorocytosine, and its major active metabolite, 5‐fluorouridine, in hospital wastewater samples. Due to the expected low concentrations after dilution and interferences present in such a complex matrix, a very selective and sensitive detection method is required. Moreover, an extraction method must be implemented prior to the determination in order to purify the sample extract and preconcentrate the target analytes at micrograms per liter concentration levels. Solid‐phase extraction followed by liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry was the combination of choice and all included parameters were studied. Under optimized conditions for wastewater samples analysis, recoveries from 63 to 108% were obtained, while intraday and interday relative standard deviations never exceeded 20 and 25%, respectively. Limits of detection between 61 and 620 ng/L were achieved. Finally, the optimized method was applied to samples from hospital wastewater effluents.