Abstract
The sorption coefficients of four rarely studied zwitterionic pharmaceuticals (benzimidazoles: fenbendazole, albendazole, thiabendazole and flubendazole) and four metabolites of fenbendazole to various dissolved organic matter surrogates (humic acid, sodium dodecyl sulfate micelle, hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin and liposomes made of 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (POPC), and sewage sludge) were measured to extend the available sorption coefficients and eventually to evaluate their environmental fate in soil and water environment. For the entire range of dissolved organic matters, the more hydrophobic fenbendazole and albendazole had higher sorption coefficients than thiabendazole and flubendazole, indicating that the traditional hypothesis of hydrophobic interaction holds for zwitterionic benzimidazole anthelmintics. However, the sorption coefficients of a given benzimidazole to selected dissolved organic matters (DOMs) varied within an order of magnitude. The measured Koc values decreased in the order of fenbendazole, albendazole, thiabendazole and flubendazole for sewage sludge and hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin whereas the orders were different for the other DOM surrogates, implying the hydrophilic nature of sewage sludge. This was also supported by the (N+O)/C elemental ratio of the sewage sludge sample used in this study. The correlations between logKoc and logKow were weak (r2=0.28-0.64) and the magnitude of the sorption coefficients to the hydrophilic organic matters (hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin and sewage sludge) were similar to or slightly smaller than those for the hydrophobic organic matters (humic acids and liposome). This suggests that specific hydrophilic interactions also play a significant role in the sorption of moderately hydrophobic benzimidazoles to organic matters.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 256-262 |
Number of pages | 7 |
Journal | Chemosphere |
Volume | 80 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2010 Jun |
Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korean Government (MEST) (No. 2008-0062072). We thank two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments to improve the quality of the manuscript. We thank Dr. Sung-Hwa Yoon for providing fenbendazole and its four metabolites and Dr. Hee-Ra Chang for providing the sewage sludge sample.
Keywords
- Environmental fate
- Natural organic matters
- Poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS)
- Veterinary pharmaceuticals
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Chemistry
- Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
- Pollution
- Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis
- Environmental Engineering
- Environmental Chemistry