The scarcity of freshwater has led to a considerable increase of the reuse of reclaimed wastewater for irrigation of field crops
[1
,
2]
. This practice potentially exposes agricultural produce to a large variety of xenobiotic compounds including contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) which have been widely recognized to be present in wastewater
[3]
. Common approaches for the extraction of CECs from crops rely on solid-liquid extraction
[4]
, assisted solvent extraction
[5]
, ultra-sound solvent extraction
[6]
and recently QuEChERS (QUick, Easy, CHeap, Effective, Rugged and Safe) [
[7]
,
[8]
–
9]
. Here, eight QuEChERS-based methodologies were compared for their suitability to determine 45 CECs in roots and leaves of soil-grown radish.
The key points of the method development were:
The development of two single-step analytical methods specific for radish root and leaves, after testing eight different approaches using QuEChERS extraction for the quantitation of 45 CECs. The analytical methodology selected requires minimal time and solvent, making it cost-effective.
Methods validation were performed at five concentrations levels (2, 5, 10, 50 and 200 ng g
−1
), with low limits of quantification between 0.01 and 0.32 ng g
−1
.
The two optimized methodologies may be applied to identify large number of compounds of different families in radish crop. However, validation will be needed to quantify compounds different from the target compounds of this paper.
Pharmaceuticals have been becoming a major concern of environmental pollution since the beginning of the century. The ways in which these contaminants are introduced into the environment are very different, but almost always associated with wastewater. In fact, current wastewater treatment plants are not designed for the removal of pharmaceutical products. Indeed, the problem of water scarcity has played an important role in the introduction of pharmaceutical products into the environment, particularly in the agricultural sector. Because of the drought, more and more countries are resorting to the use of treated wastewater to irrigate vegetables for human consumption. Consequently, the reuse of wastewater in agriculture constitutes a continuous introduction of these molecules into the soil. The effects of this practice are not entirely clear. However, the probability that these compounds can enter the food chain directly is high. In fact, through radical absorption, plants could uptake pharmaceuticals from soil and water, leading to the accumulation of drugs in the tissues. The development of analytical methods of solid matrices such as soil or plant tissues requires substantial work due to the great complexity of the matrices and the differences between the physico-chemical properties of analytes of interest. Several multi-class methods have recently been developed to determine a large number of pharmaceutical products in soil or plants using different extraction techniques. This chapter addresses to list all the analytical procedures published so far used for the extraction and analysis of pharmaceutical products from plant tissues and from the soil irrigated with treated wastewater.
Abstract. Due to the fast urbanization and climate change, urban aquifers are
considered as a strategic source of potable water. However, a potential
limitation is the presence of contaminants, such as pharmaceuticals, which
might deteriorate groundwater quality. This work investigated the occurrence
of pharmaceuticals and evaluated their human health risk in an alluvial
urban aquifer recharged by a polluted river that receives discharges from
wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). To this end, river and groundwater
samples were collected from February to May 2021 for the analysis of 92
pharmaceuticals using a solid-phase extraction and a high-pressure liquid
chromatography coupled to a high resolution mass spectrometric methodology
(HPLC-HRMS). Results showed that 35 pharmaceuticals, including 6
transformation products (TPs), were detected in all groundwater samples and
the range of concentrations was from the low ng L−1 to 44.5 µg L−1.
Moreover, the concentrations of some substances decreased along the flow
path during bank filtration, suggesting the occurrence of natural
attenuation processes (e.g., adsorption or oxidation-reduction). Finally,
most of the measured substances did not pose a risk to human health since
estimated risk quotients were low.
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