bag, hormonal contraception, ibuprofen, pre-treatment

Due to the continuous and increasing consumption and their incomplete elimination in wastewater treatment plants pharmaceuticals are ubiquitous compounds in the aquatic environment. The characterization of pharmaceuticals contamination requires analytical method able to quantify pharmaceuticals in very low concentration (few ng/L). However, it is impossible to make a direct injection of real water into instrument. Pretreatment of the real water sample is a necessity before instrumental analysis. This work describes method for pre-treatment of real water samples contaminated by ibuprofen and 4 hormonal contraceptives. It is based on using of bags filled with crushed dried leaves of knotweed. The sorption efficiency and the optimum desorption conditions were determined. The developed bag method has been successfully applied to the detection of ibuprofen and hormonal contraceptives in Moravian-Silesian surface waters. The detected amounts of pharmaceuticals were in the range from tens to hundreds ng/L.