Ultrasonic extraction of pharmaceuticals from active sludge

Farmaceutici su kemijske tvari koje se koriste pri liječenju i sprječavanju bolesti kod ljudi i životinja. Nazivaju se "novim onečišćivačima" jer još uvijek ne postoje propisane zakonske doze ispuštanja obrađenih otpadnih voda u okoliš te su još uvijek nedovoljno istraženi. Ipak, danas je postignuta viša svijest o mogućim negativnim utjecajima farmaceutika na cjelokupni živi svijet te je stoga i sve više istraživanja znanstvenika usmjereno na otkrivanje njihova ponašanja u vodenim sustavima, tlu i sedimentu. Kako bi se izbjegle neželjene posljedice, potreban je konstantni nadzor i zakonsko propisivanje maksimalno dopuštenih koncentracija farmaceutika u okolišu s obzirom da oni pokazuju veliku tendenciju zadržavanja u čvrstim prirodnim maticama. Farmaceutici ispitivani u ovom radu su: antibiotici (azitromicin, cefdinir, eritromicin), antihelmintici (albendazol, febantel, prazikvantel), antiemetik (metoklopramid) i kemoterapeutik (hidroksiklorokin). U radu je proučavano ponašanje farmaceutika u različitim čistim organskim otapalima, ali i u dvokomponentnim sustavima otapala. Pri tome je korištena metoda ultrazvučne ekstrakcije, kao jeftina i vrlo dostupna metoda. Separacija i kvalitativna analiza farmaceutika te iskorištenja farmaceutika u ekstraktima, određena su tekućinskom kromatografijom visoke djelotvornosti s nizom dioda (HPLC-DAD). Željeno iskorištenje više od 50 % postignuto je u samo četiri slučaja, za metoklopramid u etanolu i metanolu te za hidroksiklorokin u etanolu i dvokomponentnom sustavu etanol:heksan. Iz tog razloga, potrebno je primijeniti neke druge metode ekstrakcije kojima bi se smanjio utjecaj matice uzorka te tako dobilo bolje iskorištenje ekstrakcije farmaceutika iz aktivnog mulja.Pharmaceuticals are chemical substances used in the treatment and prevention of human and animals diseases. They are called a “new pollutants” because there still are not defined a regulatory legal doses for releasing treated wastewater into the environment and they are still insufficiently studied. However, today is achieved higher awareness about possible negative impacts pharmaceuticals to the entire living world and the more and more researches of scientists are focused on discovering their behavior in water, soil and sediment. In order to avoid unintended consequences, constant supervision and regulation of the maximum legal residue levels pharmaceuticals in environment is required since they show a high tendency to retain in solid natural matrices. The pharmaceuticals used in this paper are: antibiotics (azitromycine, eritromycine, cefdinir, chlaritromycine, nitrofurantoin), antihelminitics (albendazole, febantel, praziquantel), antiemetic (metoclopramide) and chemoterapeutic agent (hydroxychloroquine). In this paper behavior of pharmaceuticals in various pure organic solvents is studied, as well as in two-component solvent systems. The ultrasonic extraction method is used, as a cheap and highly available method. Separation and qualitative analysis of pharmaceuticals and utilization of pharmaceuticals in the extracts were determined by high performance liquid chromatography with diode array detector (HPLC–DAD). The yield of more than 50 % was achieved in only four cases, for metoclopramide in ethanol and ethanol and for hydroxylchlorocin in ethanol and a two-component ethanol: hexane system. For this reason, some other extraction methods should be used to reduce the impact of the sample nut, thus increasing the utilization of extraction of active pharmaceutical sludge