Determination of triphenyltin in sea water samples by liquid chromatography with fluorimetric detection

Tributyltin distribution and producing androgenic activity in water, sediment, and fish muscle

This study investigated the concentrations of Tributyltin (TBT) in water, sediment, and fish muscle samples taken from Kaohsiung Harbor and Kaoping River estuary, Taiwan. TBT concentrations in water and sediment samples ranged from less than 18.5 to 34.1 ng Sn L(-1) and from 2.44 to 29.7 ng Sn g(-1) weight per weight (w/w), respectively. Concentrations in the TBT-contaminated fish muscle samples ranged from 10.8 to 79.6 ng Sn g(-1) w/w. The TBT concentrations in fish muscle were higher than those in water and sediment samples. The fish muscle/water TBT bioconcentration factor (BCF) ranged from 590 to 3363 L kg(-1). Additionally, the water samples were assessed for androgenic activity with an MCF7-AR1 human breast cancer cell line. The androgenic activity ranged from 0.94 to 3.1 ng-dihydrotestosterone per litre water (ng-DHT L(-1)). Higher concentrations of TBT in water and sediment samples occurred in the dry season, but the androgenic activity had higher values in the rainy season.

Liquid chromatography with fluorimetric detection of triorganotin compounds in marine biological materials

Several extraction methods have been evaluated for marine biological materials with regard to tributyltin and triphenyltin determination by liquid chromatography with post-column fluorimetric detection using fisetin as a fluorogenic reagent. Extraction with ethyl acetate in a hydrochloric acid medium has been shown to be the most appropriate extraction method and it has been successfully applied to fish (sea bass) reference material from the National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES-11) and to a candidate reference material.