New strategies of sample preparation in the analysis of pharmaceuticals and their determination using high performance liquid chromatography

Abstract

Pharmaceuticals are “emerging contaminants” in the environment, which have received increasing attention in recent years, in part, because these compounds are constantly being emitted into the environment in quantities similar to other organic contaminants, and thus may be candidates for future regulation. This paper reviews recently published data with respect to sample-preparation techniques for determining pharmaceutical traces in various different environmental matrices using liquid chromatography. An overview of multi-residue analytical methods, covering sample extraction and purification as well as chromatographic separation and various different detection methods is provided to illustrate common trends and method variability. Additionally, recent developments and advances in this field are presented