Facile HPLC technique for simultaneous detection of estrogentic hormones in wastewater

Abstract

The ever-increasing population has aroused demand for contraceptive chemicals which pollute the water reservoirs through industrial effluents. This has caused a severe threat to marine life and high concern about the availability of fresh drinkable water for people all over the world. Not only this, the unwanted intake of these water containing hormones leads to fertility disorder, rapid femininity, loss in male sperm count, high chances of breast, and ovarian cancer. Therefore, in this study, a one-step high-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) technique was devised for simultaneous detection and quantification of various estrogenic hormones from wastewater. Four representative hormones Estrone (E1), β-Estradiol (E2), Estriol (E3), and 17a- Ethinylestradiol (EE2) were used. To address the solubility of these hormones, a study was conducted in three solvents systems viz. ethanol, ethanol: water (20:80), and water, respectively. Similarly, calibration curves were made for these three solvent systems with regression coefficients =0.99. Interestingly, it was found that water can be used as a solvent for the estrogenic hormones at a detection limit as low as 5 μg/L, which makes this study quite significant. © 2021 TANGER Ltd., Ostrava.