Bioanalytical methods for tracking pharmaceuticals in the environment

Farmaceutici se dugi niz godina koriste u medicinske terapijske svrhe i time se nekontrolirano unose u okoliš, bilo putem staničnih izlučevina, neodgovarajućim odlaganjem ili ispuštanjem u okoliš prilikom neadekvatne obrade otpadnih voda. Prepoznati su kao potencijalni onečišćivaći i zato se nazivaju "novim zagađivalima". O njima još uvijek ne postoji dovoljno podataka da bi se dobio uvid u njihovo ponašanje i utjecaj na okoliš. Zbog toga se sve više ulaže u razvoj instrumenata s dovoljno niskim granicama detekcije i kvantifikacije, kako bi se odredile vrijednosti maksimalno dozvoljenih koncentracija farmaceutika u okolišu. Mnoga istraživanja su ukazala na moguću biorazgradnju takvih spojeva što bi se moglo implementirati u sustave za obradu otpadnih voda. Cilj ovog rada je optimiranje uvjeta biorazgradnje veterinarskog farmaceutika antihelmintika albendazola u šaržnom reaktoru praćenjem fizikalno-kemijskih pokazatelja u vodenom mediju. Učinkovitost biorazgradnje albendazola kao i identifikacija transformacijskih produkata nastalih tijekom procesa prati se analitičkim i bioanalitičkim metodama. U ovom radu postignuta je biorazgradnja albendazola u vodi aktivnim muljem pri čemu se ne smije zanemariti utjecaj hidrolize. Prisutni transformacijski produkti su detektirani i identificirani tekućinskom kromatografijom visoke djelotvornosti i tekućinskom kromatografijom ultravisoke djelotvornosti, a ocjena toksičnosti procesa biorazgradnje provedena je metodom mjerenja zone inhibicije na mikroorganizmima krakterističnima za tlo i vodu.For many years pharmaceuticals have been used for medical therapeutic purposes and therefore have been uncontrollably entered in the environment, through excretion, inappropriate disposal or because of inadequate waste water treatment plants. Recently they have been recognized as a potentially harmful pollutants, so accordingly that the term "emerging contaminants" have been formed. There is still no sufficient data to predict their behavior and the impact on the environment. That is reason for increasingly investing in the development of instruments with sufficiently low limits of detection and quantification, to determine the threshold limit value of pharmaceuticals in the environment. Many studies have pointed to a possible biodegradation of these compounds, so that can be set in systems for waste water treatment. The aim of this study was to optimize the conditions of biodegradation veterinary pharmaceutical anthelmintic albendazole in a batch reactor by monitoring the physical and chemical parameters in water media. The effectiveness of biodegradation of albendazole and identification of transformation products formed during the process is monitored by analytical and bioanalytical methods. In this study the biodegradation of albendazole in the water with activated sludge have been achieved whereby it could not be ignored the impact of hydrolysis on that process. Transformation products have been detected and identified by high performance liquid chromatography and ultrahigh performance liquid chromatography, and assessment of toxicity of biodegradation process was made by measuring the zone of inhibition on microorganisms characteristic for soil and water