11 Analysis of Drugs and Their Metabolites
Currently, the scarcity of sensitive multi-residue analytical methods represents the
bottleneck to the comprehensive screening of wastewater contaminants. Although
hundreds of analytical methods for the quantitative determination of drugs and their
metabolites in wastewater and surface water have been published over the years, the
number of robust and reliable methods for their determination in plant tissues and
soil is still quite few. Several analytical methods have been developed to extract
drugs from plant tissues using a wide array of techniques. Some methods have been
developed to extract wastewater-borne pollutants from plant tissues using traditional
approaches with large amounts of solvents such as solid-liquid extraction [76, 93],
accelerated solvent extraction [94], and ultrasound-based extraction [77, 81, 95–
98]. However, the aforementioned methods are not environmentally sustainable. In
recent years, several analytical methods have proposed the use of a rapid, easy,
cheap, effective, robust, and safe method, QuEChERS protocols, for the determination of pharmaceutical products in lettuce or other vegetable products [76, 94, 99–
103]. This extraction method is widely used in the analysis of pesticides in fruits and
vegetables. The determination of pharmaceuticals and their metabolites by means of
liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (LC-MS) is challenging
because of their low concentrations, but it is the method of choice because it is the
unique method capable of detecting such amounts of drugs after their extraction and
preconcentration.
Book Description
In the following chapters, the long journey of drugs from the first synthesis (chapter
“The Journey of Human Drugs from Their Design at the Bench to Their Fate in
Crops”) to the whereabouts in crops and ultimately their analysis is described
beginning with the identification of the sources of drugs in water (chapter “Sources
of Pharmaceuticals in Water”). Their main routes of entry into the environment are
alongside wastewater and sewage sludge. Both can be considered valuable resources
rather than waste products in accordance with circular economy rules (chapter
“Environmental, Economic, and Ethical Assessment of the Treated Wastewater
and Sewage Sludge Valorization in Agriculture”). The amount of essential nutrients
supplied to the soil through wastewater irrigation and amendment of digested
sewage sludge must be carefully considered. Furthermore, these practices imply
the conscious yet undesired introduction of known or unknown trace contaminants
such as human drugs into agricultural soils, whose impact (chapter “Wastewater
Reuse in Agriculture: Effects on Soil-Plant System Properties”) on soil quality needs
to be evaluated. Drugs originating from reclaimed wastewater or biosolids enter
crops through plant roots and may accumulate to different degrees in various plant
compartments. The uptake and translocation are dependent on multiple parameters,
namely, physico-chemical properties of the compounds, plant physiology, and
environmental factors (chapter “Uptake and Translocation of Pharmaceuticals in
Plants: Principles and Data Analyses”). Drugs remaining in the soil following land
application of wastewater, sewage sludge, and manures (chapter “Soil Sorption and
24
N. Montemurro et al.
Currently, the scarcity of sensitive multi-residue analytical methods represents the
bottleneck to the comprehensive screening of wastewater contaminants. Although
hundreds of analytical methods for the quantitative determination of drugs and their
metabolites in wastewater and surface water have been published over the years, the
number of robust and reliable methods for their determination in plant tissues and
soil is still quite few. Several analytical methods have been developed to extract
drugs from plant tissues using a wide array of techniques. Some methods have been
developed to extract wastewater-borne pollutants from plant tissues using traditional
approaches with large amounts of solvents such as solid-liquid extraction [76, 93],
accelerated solvent extraction [94], and ultrasound-based extraction [77, 81, 95–
98]. However, the aforementioned methods are not environmentally sustainable. In
recent years, several analytical methods have proposed the use of a rapid, easy,
cheap, effective, robust, and safe method, QuEChERS protocols, for the determination of pharmaceutical products in lettuce or other vegetable products [76, 94, 99–
103]. This extraction method is widely used in the analysis of pesticides in fruits and
vegetables. The determination of pharmaceuticals and their metabolites by means of
liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (LC-MS) is challenging
because of their low concentrations, but it is the method of choice because it is the
unique method capable of detecting such amounts of drugs after their extraction and
preconcentration.
Book Description
In the following chapters, the long journey of drugs from the first synthesis (chapter
“The Journey of Human Drugs from Their Design at the Bench to Their Fate in
Crops”) to the whereabouts in crops and ultimately their analysis is described
beginning with the identification of the sources of drugs in water (chapter “Sources
of Pharmaceuticals in Water”). Their main routes of entry into the environment are
alongside wastewater and sewage sludge. Both can be considered valuable resources
rather than waste products in accordance with circular economy rules (chapter
“Environmental, Economic, and Ethical Assessment of the Treated Wastewater
and Sewage Sludge Valorization in Agriculture”). The amount of essential nutrients
supplied to the soil through wastewater irrigation and amendment of digested
sewage sludge must be carefully considered. Furthermore, these practices imply
the conscious yet undesired introduction of known or unknown trace contaminants
such as human drugs into agricultural soils, whose impact (chapter “Wastewater
Reuse in Agriculture: Effects on Soil-Plant System Properties”) on soil quality needs
to be evaluated. Drugs originating from reclaimed wastewater or biosolids enter
crops through plant roots and may accumulate to different degrees in various plant
compartments. The uptake and translocation are dependent on multiple parameters,
namely, physico-chemical properties of the compounds, plant physiology, and
environmental factors (chapter “Uptake and Translocation of Pharmaceuticals in
Plants: Principles and Data Analyses”). Drugs remaining in the soil following land
application of wastewater, sewage sludge, and manures (chapter “Soil Sorption and
24
N. Montemurro et al.