HPLC ANALYSIS OF SOLID PHASE EXTRACTED AQUACULTURAL VETERINARY PHARMACEUTICALS IN WATER
 
OLATUNBOSUN OLUKOYA, B.PHARM
 
ABSTRACT
Pharmaceuticals are emerging contaminants that are gradually entering the water system.
These include veterinary drugs which are used for treating, mitigating or preventing illness or influencing specific body function in animals. This research is aimed at using HPLC to detect the presence of veterinary drugs that were extracted in fish pond-waste and river water from an aqua cultural environment in Ijebu-Ode (Ogun State-Nigeria) using Solid Phase Extraction Cartridges.
The three pharmaceuticals detected were Oxytetracycline, Tetracycline and Chloramphenicol.
SPE cartridges with C8, C18 and Cyano sorbents were respectively used to extract the targeted pharmaceuticals in the water samples after a recovery test was conducted. C18 has the highest recovery for Oxytetracycline, C8 for both tetracycline and Chloramphenicol.
All the three pharmaceuticals, except tetracycline, were found in varying concentrations with the highest value for Chloramphenicol found to be 0.60ng/ml and that of Oxytetracycline was 0.46ng/ml.
This result showed the prevalence of pharmaceuticals in water in this small community which sometimes depends on river water for nourishment purpose. This calls for a need to establish modern waste treatment methods that can conveniently remove pharmaceuticals in water before they are discharged into the environment in an attempt to preserve our ecosystem.