Simultaneous determination of pharmaceutical compounds in environmental samples by solid-phase extraction and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry

Pharmaceutical substances are synthetic compounds with very widespread usage due to their therapeutic biological effects. These compounds and their bioactive metabolites are continually introduced into the aquatic environment as complex mixtures via sewage treatment plants (incomplete destruction), animal farms or leaching from landfills. In this study, an analytical procedure involving solid-phase extraction and gas chromatography-mass spectrometrywas developed to determine pharmaceutical compounds (caffeine, diclofenac, ketoprofen and ibuprofen) in aqueous samples (wastewater and surface water). The results demonstrated the suitability of the method at trace levels (ng · L-1) for multi-residue analysis of different types of water matrices.

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