An effervescence-assisted switchable fatty acid-based microextraction with solidification of floating organic droplet for determination of fluoroquinolones and tetracyclines in seawater, sediment, and seafood

Acid induced dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction based on in situ formation of hydrophobic deep eutectic solvents for the extraction of bisphenol A and alkylphenols in water and beverage samples

This study describes the development of an acid induced dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction method based on the in situ formation of hydrophobic deep eutectic solvents for the extraction of bisphenol A and alkylphenols from environmental water and beverage samples. Hydrochloric acid altered the hydrophilic-hydrophobic state of fatty acid salts to obtain hydrophobic fatty acids, which formed hydrophobic deep eutectic solvents with analytes in situ to extract the analytes. Under optimized conditions, the limits of detection and limits of quantitation were 0.03-0.1 μg L-1 and 0.12-0.3 μg L-1, the intraday and interday relative standard deviations were less than 3.9 %, and the enrichment factor was 29-32. The recoveries of bisphenol A and alkylphenols were 95.9-104.9 % and 86.9-105.0 %, respectively. The extraction process used only hydrochloric acid and fatty acid salts, and the extraction process required less than 1 min. This method has the advantages of simplicity, speed, low cost and environmental friendliness.

Current analytical strategies for the determination of quinolone residues in milk

Quinolones are potent antibacterial drugs extensively utilized for treating bacterial infections in poultry. However, the presence of quinolone antibiotic residues in milk is a matter of concern due to potential health risks and adverse effects on milk quality. This review provides an overview of current analytical strategies for the determination of quinolone residues in milk. Various sample preparation techniques, such as liquid-phase extraction, solid-phase extraction and QuEChERS, are discussed, along with detection methods including instrument-based detection, immune-based detection, and microbial detection. The advantages and limitations of each method are highlighted, as well as their applicability in different stages of milk production. Additionally, recent advancements in sample preparation and detection methods are presented. This comprehensive review aims to contribute to the development of accurate and reliable methods for the detection of quinolone residues in milk, ensuring the safety and quality of dairy products.

Oxytetracycline-induced inflammatory process without oxidative stress in blue mussels Mytilus trossulus

Potentially harmful compounds including pharmaceuticals are commonly found in marine waters and sediments. Amongst those, antibiotics and their metabolites are detected worldwide in various abiotic (at concentrations as high as µg/L) and biotic matrices at ng/gram of tissue, posing a risk to non-target species exposed to them such as blue mussels. Amongst those, oxytetracycline (OTC) belongs to the most detected antibiotics in the marine environment. In this work, we concentrated on studying the potential induction of oxidative stress, activation of cellular detoxification processes (including Phase I and Phase II xenobiotic biotransformation enzymes) and multixenobiotic resistance pumps (Phase III) as well as changes in the aromatisation efficiency in Mytilus trossulus exposed to 100 μg/L OTC. Our results show that 100 µg/L OTC concentration did not provoke cellular oxidative stress and did not affect the expression of genes involved in detoxification processes in our model. Moreover, no effect of OTC on aromatisation efficiency was found. Instead, phenoloxidase activity measured in haemolymph was significantly higher in OTC exposed mussels than in those from the control (30.95 ± 3.33 U/L and 17.95 ± 2.75 U/L, respectively). OTC exposed mussels were also characterised by a tissue-dependant activation of major vault protein (MVP) gene expression (1.5 times higher in gills and 2.4 times higher in the digestive system) and a decreased expression of the nuclear factor kappa B-a (NF-κB) gene (3.4 times lower in the digestive system) when compared to those from the control. Additionally, an elevated number of regressive changes and inflammatory responses in tissues such as gills, digestive system and mantle (gonads) was observed underlining the worsening of bivalves' general health. Therefore, instead of a free-radical effect of OTC, we for the first time describe the occurrence of typical changes resulting from antibiotic therapy in non-target organisms like M. trossulus exposed to antibiotics such as OTC.

Fluoroquinolone antibiotics: Occurrence, mode of action, resistance, environmental detection, and remediation - A comprehensive review

Antibiotics play an essential role in the medical healthcare world, but their widespread usage and high prevalence have posed negative environmental consequences. During the past few decades, various antibiotic drugs have been detected in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. Among them, the Fluoroquinolones (FQ) group is ubiquitous in the environment and has emerged as a major environmental pollutant. FQs are very significant, broad-spectrum antibiotics used in treating various pathogenic diseases of humans and animals. The most known and used FQs are ciprofloxacin, norfloxacin, ofloxacin, levofloxacin, enrofloxacin, danofloxacin, and moxifloxacin. After human and animal administration, about 70% of these drugs are excreted out in unaltered form into the environment. Besides, wastewater discharge from pharmaceutical industries, hospitals, and agriculture runoff is the major contributor to the accumulation of FQs into the ecosystem. Their long-term presence in the environment creates selection pressure on microorganisms and contributes to the emergence of multi-drug-resistant bacteria. In addition to the resistance, these antibiotics also impose ecotoxicological effects on various animals and plant species. The presence of the fluorine atom in Fluoroquinolones makes them highly electronegative, strong, recalcitrant, and less compatible with microbial degradation. Many biological and chemical processes have been invented and successfully implemented during the past few decades for the elimination of these pollutants from the environment. This review provides a detailed overview of the classification, occurrence, distribution, and ecotoxicological effects of Fluoroquinolones. Their modes of action, resistance mechanism, detection and analysis methods, and remediation strategies have also been discussed in detail.

Switchable hydrophilic solvent-based dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction coupled with high-performance liquid chromatography for the determination of four types of sulfonylurea herbicides in soils

In this study, switchable hydrophilic solvent-based dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction coupled with high-performance liquid chromatography was developed for the determination of four sulfonylurea herbicides in soils. For the first time, the sample pretreatment was achieved due to the similar acid-base status of sulfonylurea herbicides and switchable hydrophilic solvent. In the extraction step, sulfonylurea herbicides were extracted as anions and transferred to an alkaline solution with switchable hydrophilic solvent anions. In the concentration step, two types of anions were transformed to their molecular state after the aqueous solution was acidified. In addition, the dispersion and microextraction processes were completed efficiently with the simultaneous formation of analytes and extractants. The factors affecting the extraction performance were optimized. Under the optimized conditions, good linearity was observed for each herbicide with correlation coefficients ranging from 0.9952 to 0.9978. The limits of detection were in the range of 0.1-0.2 μg/g. Moreover, the relative recoveries of the sulfonylurea herbicides at spiking levels of 0.5, 1, and 1.5 μg/g in soil samples were between 75 and 111% (relative standard deviations: 0.4-11.4%). Therefore, the proposed method in this study could be successfully applied to the analysis of four types of sulfonylurea herbicides in soil samples.

Miniaturized green sample preparation approaches for pharmaceutical analysis

The development of green sample preparation procedures is an extremely important research field in which more and more applications are constantly being proposed in different areas, including pharmaceutical analysis. This review article is aimed at providing a general overview of the development of miniaturized green analytical sample preparation procedures in the pharmaceutical analysis field, with special focus on the works published between January 2017 and July 2021. Particular attention has been paid to the application of environmentally friendly solvents and sorbents as well as nanomaterials or high extraction capacity sorbents in which the solvent volumes and reagents amounts are drastically reduced, with their subsequent advantages from the sustainability point of view.

Development of effervescence-assisted switchable-polarity solvent homogeneous liquid-phase microextraction for the determination of permethrin and deltamethrin in water samples prior to GC-FID

An effervescent tablet-assisted switchable polarity solvent-based homogeneous liquid-phase microextraction (ETA-SPS-HLPME) combined with gas chromatography with flame ionization detection has been conducted for the separation, preconcentration, and detection of permethrin and deltamethrin in the river water specimens. The triethylamine (TEA) was utilized as a switchable polarity solvent in this method. The switching process was carried out by the dissolution of an effervescent tablet including an effervescency agent (sodium carbonate) and a proton donor agent (citric acid). Changing the pH of the specimen solution enhanced the conversion of TEA into protonated triethylamine carbonate (P-TEA-C) through the tablet that generated carbon dioxide (CO₂ ) bubbles in situ. Finally, the addition of sodium hydroxide changed the ionization state of TEA and separated two phases. Influential factors in extraction were investigated. According to optimal situations, the limits of detection (LOD) and the limits of quantification (LOQ) were obtained 0.16 and 0.5 μgL^-1 for permethrin and 0.03 and 0.1 μgL^-1 for deltamethrin respectively. The preconcentration factor (PF) was achieved 194 in river water samples and interday and intraday precision (RSD % n = 5) was <5%. The extraction recovery was obtained in the range of 93.0-97% for permethrin and deltamethrin in water samples.

A Simple Microextraction Method for Toxic Industrial Dyes Using a Fatty-Acid Solvent Mixture

A mixture of dodecanoic and hexanoic fatty acids was used to perform a simple and efficient microextraction method for industrial dyes such as methylene blue (MB), methyl violet (MV), and malachite green (MG) in aqueous solution. The fatty-acid microextractants were simply mixed and heated until the mixture became homogeneous before adding it to the dye solutions. The fatty-acid solvent and its components were characterized with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR) measurements, while the dye concentrations were measured using UV-Vis spectroscopy. The performance of the extracting mixture was observed to vary across different dye contaminants, dosages of the extractant, concentrations of the dyes, and contact times. High extraction efficiencies of up to ~99% were obtained for MG as well as MV, and ~73% efficiency was achieved for MB. The study shows how a mixture of fatty acids can be used as a simple, efficient, green, and sustainable low-volume method for the removal of toxic industrial dyes in aqueous solutions.

Solidified floating organic droplet microextraction coupled with HPLC for rapid determination of trans, trans muconic acid in benzene biomonitoring

Benzene is one of the carcinogenic compounds in the work environments. Exposure assessment of benzene through biological monitoring is an acceptable way to accurately measure the real exposure in order to conducting the health risk assessment, but it is always complicated, laborious, time consuming and costly process. A new sensitive, simple, fast and environmental friendly method was developed for the determination of urinary metabolite of benzene, trans trans muconic acid (t,t-MA) by dispersive liquid-liquid micro extraction based on solidification of floating organic droplet coupled with high-performance liquid chromatography with ultra violet detector. Central composite design methodology was utilized to evaluate the effective factors on the extraction output of the target metabolite. The calibration curve was plotted in the concentration ranges of 0.02-5 µg mL^-1. The precision and accuracy of the method were assayed via the relative standard deviation (RSD%) and relative recovery (RR%) using spiked samples with three replications. The RR% and RSD% of the optimized method were 86.9-91.3% and 4.3-6.3% respectively. The limit of detection (LOD) of the method was 0.006 µg mL^-1. The level of t,t-MA in real samples was ranged from 0.54 to 1.64 mg/g creatinine. We demonstrated that t,t-MA can be extracted and determined by an inexpensive, simple and fast method.

Switchable solvent-based micro-extraction of pesticides in food and environmental samples

Switchable solvents are new generation solvents that are environmentally friendly and can be used for the effective pre-concentration of pesticide residues in food and environmental matrices. They have physico-chemical properties that can be switched abruptly and reversibly between two opposite forms. The common switchable solvents used commonly during pesticide pre-concentration involve polarity switch. Such solvent switch between hydrophobic and hydrophilic forms during pesticide pre-concentration. Secondary and tertiary amines are typical switchable hydrophilicity solvents. The amines are hydrophobic but they abruptly and reversibly switch to their hydrophilic forms on addition of CO₂ to them. The application of amine-based switchable solvents during pre-concentration of pesticide residue in food and environmental samples are discussed in this paper. Medium-chain fatty acids can also be used as switchable solvents. Their switch between hydrophobic and hydrophilic forms is usually triggered by pH changes. Applications of fatty acid-based switchable solvents during pre-concentration of pesticide residues are reviewed in this paper. Switchable solvent-based micro-extraction can be combined with other pre-concentration techniques to enhance selectivity resulting in clean chromatograms. This paper has a section dedicated to the application of hyphenated switchable solvent-based micro-extraction techniques during pre-concentration of pesticides in food and environmental samples. In addition, the challenges associated with the use of switchable solvents during micro-extraction of pesticide residues are also discussed.

Effervescence-assisted dual microextraction of PAHs in edible oils using lighter-than-water phosphonium-based ionic liquids and switchable hydrophilic/hydrophobic fatty acids

Herein, we developed a novel effervescence-assisted dual microextraction method, abbreviated as EM-LPSH, using lighter-than-water phosphonium-based ionic liquids (LPILs) and switchable hydrophilic/hydrophobic fatty acids (SHFAs). The EM-LPSH method was utilized for quick enrichment/extraction of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in edible oils. Owing to lower density than water, LPILs used as the first extractant were floated on the upper layer of the aqueous phase, leading to a convenient separation/collection compared with traditional heavier-than-water imidazolium-based ionic liquids. Interestingly, SHFAs play triple functions: a dispersive solvent in the microextraction process, an acidic source in effervescent reaction, and the second extractant in dual microextraction, due to switchability from hydrophilicity to hydrophobicity. Consequently, the integration of LPILs with SHFAs greatly enhanced the extraction efficiency for PAHs owing to the quick dual microextraction process. Some important variables were rigorously optimized using a one-factor-at-a-time approach. Under optimized conditions, the EM-LPSH/HPLC-FLD method provided a wide linear range (0.07~0.63-200 μg kg^-1), satisfactory recovery (80.12-103.27%), and low limit of detection (0.02-0.19 μg kg^-1), as well as high intra-day and inter-day precision (0.03-6.55) for six PAHs in edible oils. By using certified reference material in olive oil samples (GBW10162), the recoveries ranged from 97.40 to 98.39%, demonstrating high accuracy and precision. According to the detected levels of PAHs in six unheated and heated oils, their edible safety was evaluated in detail. In short, the newly developed method is simple, convenient, and highly efficient, thereby showing great prospects for application in conventional monitoring of trace-level PAHs in edible oils.

Fabrication of a dual-emittingcomposite as a recyclable luminescent sensor for sensitive detection of nitrofuran antibiotics

A novel dual-emittingRhB@Zn-1composite was fabricated by encapsulating RhB into the channels ofZn-1, which can serve as a recyclable sensor for sensitive and selective detection of nitrofuran antibioticsviathe luminescence quenching process.

Effervescence-Assisted Microextraction-One Decade of Developments

Dispersive microextraction techniques are key in the analytical sample treatment context as they combine a favored thermodynamics and kinetics isolation of the target analytes from the sample matrix. The dispersion of the extractant in the form of tiny particles or drops, depending on the technique, into the sample enlarges the contact surface area between phases, thus enhancing the mass transference. This dispersion can be achieved by applying external energy sources, the use of chemicals, or the combination of both strategies. Effervescence-assisted microextraction emerged in 2011 as a new alternative in this context. The technique uses in situ-generated carbon dioxide as the disperser, and it has been successfully applied in the solid-phase and liquid-phase microextraction fields. This minireview explains the main fundamentals of the technique, its potential and the main developments reported.

Pyrolysis molecule of Torreya grandis bark for potential biomedicine

Torreya grandis is a unique tree species in China. Although full use has been made of the timber, the processing and utilization of the bark has not been effective. In order to explore a new way to utilize the bark of Torreya grandis, a powder of T. grandis bark was prepared and analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. Differential scanning calorimetry (TG) and pyrolysis gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (PY-GC/MS) revealed many bioactive components in the bark of T. grandis, such as acetic acid, 2-methoxy-4-vinyl phenol, D-mannose, and furfural. These substances have potential broad applications in the chemical industry, biomedicine, and food additives. The chemical constituents of the bark of T. grandis suggest a theoretical basis for the future development and utilization of the bark of T. grandis.

Metal–organic framework-based fluorescent sensing of tetracycline-type antibiotics applicable to environmental and food analysis

With the use of a masking agent, a luminescent MOF realized the selective fluorescent sensing of tetracyclines over many other kinds of antibiotics.