Chemometric approach to validating faecal sterols as source tracer for faecal contamination in water

Chemometric Analysis of Selected Organic Contaminants in Surface Water of Langat River Basin

“…Stigmastanol and stigmasterol were detected near domestic sewage area and urban discharges. Both compounds corresponded to faecal contamination and much related to the livestock farming activities [6,11]. Phenol clearly showed high concentration in wastewater of industrial area.…”

“…Many studies have used chemometric techniques to identify the sources and distribution of organic (such as PAHs and sterols) or inorganic (such as heavy metal) contaminantions in environmental compartments such as water, air and sediment [4][5][6][7][8]. The application of chemometric techniques would be helpful in the interpretation of complex datasets and gives a better understanding into the sources of contamination.…”

Use of Enterococcus, BST and Sterols for Poultry Pollution Source Tracking in Surface and Groundwater

“…Shah et al (2007) showed that cluster analysis of fecal sterols of humans, herbivores, birds and carnivores could distinguish between birds and the other three categories, with humans and herbivores and also herbivores and birds being well separated whereas humans and carnivores were more closely associated. Saim et al (2009) applied cluster analysis on their sterol data (only 5 sterols analyzed) from various point sources (sites included sewage treatment plants, chicken farms, quail farms and horse stables) and concluded that chicken and quail generated a separate cluster that can be distinguished. In this study, CA also grouped sites by sources of contamination: chicken and human, ruminant and chicken, human only and chicken only.…”

“…Moreover, many microbes are not hostspecific, making them ineffective for source identification. Chemical methods for fecal source tracking include analysis of sterols, bile acids, caffeine, whitening agents etc., with sterols being the most widely used indicator compound (Bull et al, 2002;Saim et al, 2009;Tyagi et al, 2009b). Both classes of methods have been somewhat successful in identifying pollution sources but not fully evaluated and accepted as established methods in environmental studies.…”

“…Higher concentrations of coprostanol have been found in human sewage than in animal wastewater and concentrations of stigmastanol and epicoprostanol were usually higher in animal (cows, pigs, and poultry) than in human wastewater (Blanch et al, 2004). Sterol analysis, a widely used chemical method for identifying fecal pollution sources is based on the fact that different sterol compounds are associated with human or animal waste and their presence/absence and relative concentrations and ratios can be used as an indication of the origin of water contamination (Chou & Liu, 2004;Devane et al, 2006;Gilpin et al, 2003;Bull et al, 2002;Jardé et al, 2007a, b;Saim et al, 2009). …”