Chemical changes of organic compounds in chlorinated water. VIII. Thin-layer chromatographic separation of mutagenic substances in the ether extract obtained from reaction mixture of 4-phenyl-phenol and hypochlorite in dilute aqueous solution.

Abstract

The ether extract from an aqueous solution of 4-phenylphenol treated with hypochlorite was mutagenic in Ames's Salmonella test strain TA100. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) showed the occurrence of, at least, ten compounds, chloro-4-phenylphenols and their oxidation products, in the extract. In order to correlate the mutagenicity with the reaction products identified on the chromatogram, the extract was separated into several fractions by thin-layer chromatography (TLC). The fractionated compounds were then examined for mutagenicity by means of Amesassays, and were identified by GC-MS. Repeated fractionations by TLC revealed that the major components present in the extract are not mutagenic, but minor components (0.3% of the total extract) are mutagenic. GC-MS analysis indicated the presence of two compounds, C12H8O2 and C12H8Cl2O2, in the component fraction which exhibited the strongest mutagenicity.