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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Maricopa, Arizona » U.S. Arid Land Agricultural Research Center » Water Management and Conservation Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #389266
Research Project: The Use of Treated Municipal Waste Water as a Source of New Water for Irrigation

Location: Water Management and Conservation Research

Title: Simultaneous extraction of four antibiotic compounds from soil and water matrices

Author
item FRANKLIN, ALISON - Pennsylvania State University
item ANDREWS, DANIELLE - University Of Pittsburgh
item Williams, Clinton
item WATSON, JOHN - Pennsylvania State University

Submitted to: Separations
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/6/2022
Publication Date: 8/2/2022
Citation: Franklin, A.M., Andrews, D.M., Williams, C.F., Watson, J.E. 2022. Simultaneous extraction of four antibiotic compounds from soil and water matrices. Separations. 9(8). Article 200. https://doi.org/10.3390/separations9080200.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/separations9080200

Interpretive Summary: Antibiotic resistance is a growing health concern. Analyzing the presence of antibiotic compounds in the environment is critical for determining the drivers for development of antibiotic resistance. Methods were developed to simultaneously analyze four antibiotics important in human medicine (sulfamethoxazole, trimethoprim, lincomycin, and ofloxacin) in environmental matrices. Based on this research, matrix characteristics, especially pH, as well as the pKa’s and functional groups of the antibiotics results in the need to select the appropriate extraction methods when attempting to extract antibiotic compounds from a water or soil matrix. These newly developed methods will be useful for researchers and regulators to quantify antibiotics from environmental samples.

Technical Abstract: The incidence of antibiotic resistance is on the rise and becoming a major health concern. Analyzing the presence of antibiotic compounds in the environment is critical for determining the potential health effects for humans, animals and ecosystems. For this study, methods were developed to simultaneously analyze four antibiotics important in human medicine (sulfamethoxazole, trimethoprim, lincomycin, and ofloxacin) in water and soil matrices. For water analysis, different solid phase extraction (SPE) cartridges (Oasis HLB plus and Phenomenex Strata-X) were compared. The Oasis HLB Plus SPE cartridge provided the highest and most consistent recoveries with 118±5%, 86±4%, 83±5%, and 75±1% for SMX, TMP, LIN, and OFL, respectively. For soil analysis, different pre-treatments (grinding and freeze-drying) and soil extraction methodologies (batch equilibration and accelerated solvent extraction (ASE) were compared. The ASE system resulted in the highest overall recoveries of SMX, TMP, LIN, and OFL with an optimal extracting solution of acetonitrile/water (v/v, 50:50, pH 2.8). When the soil was ground and freeze-dried, trimethoprim recovery increased and when soil was ground, but not freeze-dried, LIN and OFL recoveries increased, while sulfamethoxazole recoveries decreased when soil was ground and freeze-dried. Based on this research, matrix characteristics, especially pH, as well as the pKa’s and functional groups of the antibiotics need to be carefully considered when attempting to extract antibiotic compounds from a water or soil environment.