Using Conventional HPLC to Study the Interaction of Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products (PPCPS) with Plants

Abstract

Conventional high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) has a role to play in controlled laboratory studies on the environmental behavior of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs). In experimental designs where the test PPCP is the only exogenous material being added to the test system or assay, the need for definitive determination by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) is eliminated. However, this approach is limited to those PPCPs that respond with adequate analytical sensitivity, and for samples that produce relatively clean extracts free of co-eluting compounds or interferences at specific UV wavelengths. Treated wastewater that is discharged to surface water may be recycled and used for a variety of purposes, including the irrigation of crops. Studies have shown that treated wastewater contains PPCPs, because wastewater treatment plants were not designed to remove PPCPs. Under such scenarios, PPCPs may be taken up by plants; this trophic transport pathway to higher organisms should be considered in exposure assessments for PPCPs. An initial step in that assessment is the determination of potential adverse impacts of PPCPs on plants and the magnitude of plant uptake of PPCPs under controlled laboratory conditions, experimental work that can be supported by conventional HPLC analyses.