title: Microbial degradation of pharmaceuticals followed by a simple HPLC-DAD method.
abstract: The biodegradation of five pharmaceutical ingredients (PIs) of different therapeutic classes, namely antibiotics (trimethoprim, sulfametoxazole and ciprofloxacin), anti-inflammatory (diclofenac) and anti-epileptic (carbamazepine), by two distinct microbial consortia, was investigated. For the monitoring of biodegradation assays, a simple HPLC-DAD (High Performance Liquid Chromatography - Diode Array Detector) method was developed and validated. The separation of the target pharmaceuticals was performed using an environmental friendly mobile phase in a gradient mode of 0.1% triethylamine (TEA) in water acidified at pH 2.23 with trifluoroacetic acid (TFAA) and ethanol as organic solvent. The method revealed to be selective, linear and precise in the range of 1.0 to 30.0 μg/mL for all PIs. Biodegradation assays were performed using activated sludge and a bacterial consortium (able to degrade fluoroaromatic compounds) supplemented with the target PIs at a final concentration of 25 μg/mL. The results revealed that activated sludge removed the target compounds more efficiently than the bacterial consortium.
authors.affiliation: Centro de Investigação em Ciências da Saúde (CICS), Instituto Superior de Ciências da Saúde-Norte, CESPU, Gandra PRD, Portugal.
authors.forename: Ana R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Ribeiro
authors.forename: Virgínia M F
authors.initials: VM
authors.lastname: Gonçalves
authors.forename: Alexandra S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Maia
authors.forename: Maria F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Carvalho
authors.forename: Paula M L
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Castro
authors.forename: Maria E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Tiritan
mesh_terms: D002220:Carbamazepine / Q000378:metabolism*; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid / Q000379:methods*; D005021:Ethylamines / Q000378:metabolism; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D012722:Sewage / Q000382:microbiology*; D014269:Trifluoroacetic Acid / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D005021:Ethylamines; D012722:Sewage; D002220:Carbamazepine; D014269:Trifluoroacetic Acid; C016162:triethylamine