Study of the occurrence of colistin in soil

Colistin is a polypeptide antibiotic used as a "last resort" effective against Gram-negative bacteria. However, increase in its consumption in veterinary medicine in the last 30 years has led to the development of bacterial resistance even to colistin. The application of slurry to soil containing unmetabolized colistin and resistant bacteria poses a risk, because the resistance of bacteria to colistin can be further developed and spread to other components of the environment. Therefore, this work was focused on the creation and optimization of extraction and analytical methods for soil samples containing colistin. Colistin was detected by liquid chromatography in connection with mass spectrometry (HPLC/MS and UPLC/MS/MS). Many extraction solutions have been tested in connection with ultrasonic extraction and purification on various SPE columns, yet colistin has not been successfully extracted from the soil. Colistin was successfully detected only in the slurry extract. The reason why colistin was not detected in soil extracts could be the sorption of colistin on soil organic matter or the formation of complexes of colistin with humic substances