Abstract
Direct photochemical degradations of progesterone (PR) and testosterone (TR), two naturally produced hormones, have been conducted in non-buffered aqueous solution (pH ranging between 5.5 and 6.0). The irradiation experiments were carried out in a batch reactor upon monochromatic (254 nm) and polychromatic (λ > 290 nm) at 25°C. GLC/MS and LC/UV-DAD/MS analyses were performed to investigate phototransformation products after a solid phase extraction (SPE) step for analytes concentration. For each compound several by-products have been identified and are the same ones under both irradiation conditions. Because of the presence of the same chromophore (α, β-unsaturated group) absorbing UV radiations in both hormones, the majority of chromatographic peaks correspond to by-products formed according to identical mechanisms involving isomerization, enolization, oxidation and hydration to lead to the generation of lumiketone, cyclopentenone, spiro-hydration, oxidation and hydroxylation photoproducts.
Highlights
The occurence of pharmaceuticals and hormones constitute an ongoing issue in many waters quality studies because they are more and more extensively and increasingly used in human and veterinary medicine, and released continuously into the environment
Non-irradiated solutions of testosterone and progesterone were followed by both analytical techniques
Some examples of chromatograms of testosterone and progesterone are shown in Figure 1 and Figure 2, respectively
Summary
The occurence of pharmaceuticals and hormones constitute an ongoing issue in many waters quality studies because they are more and more extensively and increasingly used in human and veterinary medicine, and released continuously into the environment. An EDC is defined as “an exogenous agent that interferes with the production, release, transport, metabolism, binding, action or elimination of natural hormones in the body responsible for the maintenance of homeostasis and the regulation of development processes [1]. These compounds have been described as causes of reproductive disturbance in humans and wildlife [2] [3] or susceptible to have adverse effects in human like declines in the quality, decreases in the quantity of sperm production, and the increase in incidences of certain cancers (prostate, testicular, breast, ovaries) [1]. The lowest observable effect concentrations (LOEC) are 4.7 ng∙L−1 for estradiol [7] and 0.17 ng∙L−1 for ethinylestradiol [8]
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