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Pharmaceuticals, Emerging Contaminants, Analysis and Presence in Food and Environmental Samples

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A special issue of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049). This special issue belongs to the section "Analytical Chemistry".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 May 2023) | Viewed by 26696

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Dr. Carolina Nebot

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Department of Analytical Chemistry, Nutrition and Bromatology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Santiago de Compostela, Lugo, Spain
Interests: residue; contaminants; analysis; food; environment
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Prof. Dr. Elena Falqué López

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Guest Editor

Department of Analytical Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences, University of Vigo, Ourense, Spain
Interests: extraction; volatile compounds; antioxidant activity; sensory analysis; cosmetics
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The presence of veterinary medicines in food of animal origin due to their use for animal treatments or of prophylactic is well known and controlled. However, the presence of human pharmaceuticals and veterinary medicines in food and the environment as emerging contaminants is not so well known. More research and publications are required in this field, while work conducted in different parts of the world is needed to compile information on compounds, groups, activity, and concentration, to be able to understand, face, evaluate, and determine the possible risk for animals and humans.

In this Special Issue, we seek manuscripts which cover analytical methods and data on the presence of pharmaceuticals employed in human and veterinary medicine in food matrices and environmental samples. Potential topics include but are not limited to aspects regarding sampling procedures, sample preparation protocols, and analytical methods such as HPLC-DAD, HPLC-MS/MS, GC-MS, and GC-MS/MS with a low limit of detection or quantification (ng/L or ng/g) in a sample. Without doubt, manuscripts on monitoring studies of environmental and food matrices, including a representative number of samples, with positive results on the presence of pharmaceuticals, will also be welcome in this Special Issue.

Dr. Carolina Nebot
Prof. Dr. Elena Falqué López
Guest Editors

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Keywords

pharmaceuticals
analysis
food
water and soil

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Published Papers (9 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 2945 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Enhanced Solubility and Stability of Aripiprazole in Binary and Ternary Inclusion Complexes Using Hydroxy Propyl Beta Cyclodextrin (HPβCD) and L-Arginine

by Sophia Awais, Nouman Farooq, Sharmeen Ata Muhammad, Hamed A. El-Serehy, Farrah Ishtiaq, Mehwish Afridi, Hina Ahsan, Amin Ullah, Tariq Nadeem and Kishwar Sultana

Molecules 2023, 28(9), 3860; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules28093860 - 3 May 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2465

Abstract

The low water solubility of an active pharmaceutical ingredient (aripiprazole) is one of the most critical challenges in pharmaceutical research and development. This antipsychotic drug has an inadequate therapeutic impact because of its minimal and idiosyncratic oral bioavailability to treat schizophrenia. The main objective of this study was to improve the solubility and stability of the antipsychotic drug aripiprazole (ARP) via forming binary as well as ternary inclusion complexes with hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin (HPβCD) and L-Arginine (LA) as solubility enhancers. Physical mixing and lyophilization were used in different molar ratios. The developed formulations were analyzed by saturation solubility analysis, and dissolution studies were performed using the pedal method. The formulations were characterized by FTIR, XRD, DSC, SEM, and TGA. The results showcased that the addition of HPβCD and LA inclusion complexes enhanced the stability, in contrast to the binary formulations and ternary formulations prepared by physical mixing and solvent evaporation. Ternary formulation HLY47 improved dissolution rates by six times in simulated gastric fluid (SGF). However, the effect of LA on the solubility enhancement was concentration-dependent and showed optimal enhancement at the ratio of 1:1:0.27. FTIR spectra showed the bond shifting, which confirmed the formation of new complexes. The surface morphology of complexes in SEM studies showed the rough surface of lyophilization and solvent evaporation products, while physical mixing revealed a comparatively crystalline surface. The exothermic peaks in DSC diffractograms showed diminished peaks previously observed in the diffractogram of pure drug and LA. Lyophilized ternary complexes displayed significantly enhanced thermal stability, as observed from the thermograms of TGA. In conclusion, it was observed that the preparation method and a specific drug-to-polymer and amino acid ratio are critical for achieving high drug solubility and stability. These complexes seem to be promising candidates for novel drug delivery systems development. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Pharmaceuticals, Emerging Contaminants, Analysis and Presence in Food and Environmental Samples)

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12 pages, 3080 KiB

Open AccessArticle

In Silico Analysis of Nanoplastics’ and β-amyloid Fibrils’ Interactions

by Silvia Gabbrielli, Luca Colnaghi, Gemma Mazzuoli-Weber, Alberto Cesare Luigi Redaelli and Alfonso Gautieri

Molecules 2023, 28(1), 388; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules28010388 - 2 Jan 2023

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 4651

Abstract

Plastic pollution has become a global environmental threat, which leads to an increasing concern over the consequences of plastic exposition on global health. Plastic nanoparticles have been shown to influence the folding of proteins and influence the formation of aberrant amyloid proteins, therefore potentially triggering the development of systemic and local amyloidosis. This work aims to study the interaction between nanoplastics and β-amyloid fibrils to better understand the potential role of nanoplastics in the outbreak of neurodegenerative disorders. Using microsecond-long coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations, we investigated the interactions between neutral and charged nanoparticles made of the most common plastic materials (i.e., polyethylene, polypropylene, and polystyrene) and β-amyloid fibrils. We observe that the occurrence of contacts, region of amyloid fibril involved, and specific amino acids mediating the interaction depend on the type and charge of the nanoparticles. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Pharmaceuticals, Emerging Contaminants, Analysis and Presence in Food and Environmental Samples)

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16 pages, 1741 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Identification and Quantification of 29 Active Substances by HPLC–ESI-MS/MS in Lyophilized Swine Manure Samples

by Carolina Nebot, Alejandra Cardelle-Cobas, Ignacio García-Presedo, Ewelina Patyra, Alberto Cepeda and Carlos M. Franco

Molecules 2023, 28(1), 216; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules28010216 - 26 Dec 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2314

Abstract

Veterinary drugs are frequently employed to treat and prevent diseases in food-producing animals to improve animal health and to avoid the introduction of microorganisms into the food chain. The analysis of the presence of pharmaceutical residues in animal manure could help to evaluate the legal and illegal practices during food production without harming the animals and to correctly manage manure when it is going to be applied as a fertilizer. This article describes a method for the simultaneous analysis of 29 active substances, mostly antibiotics and antiparasitic agents. Substances were extracted from lyophilized manure with a methanol:McIlvaine solution and analyzed with HPLC–ESI-MS/MS and a C18 HPLC column. The method was validated following European guidelines, the achieved trueness was between 63 and 128% (depending on the analytes), and the linearity was between 100 and 1500 µg/kg. The applicability of the method was demonstrated in 40 manure samples collected from pig farms where tetracycline was quantified in 7.5% of the samples. These results show the viability of this non-invasive method for the control of the legal and illegal administration of pharmaceuticals in food-producing animals. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Pharmaceuticals, Emerging Contaminants, Analysis and Presence in Food and Environmental Samples)

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11 pages, 2018 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Development and Validation of the LC–MS/MS Method for Determination of 130 Natural and Synthetic Cannabinoids in Cannabis Oil

by Natalia Galant, Jakub Czarny, Jolanta Powierska-Czarny and Agnieszka Piotrowska-Cyplik

Molecules 2022, 27(23), 8601; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules27238601 - 6 Dec 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2989

Abstract

Dietary supplements are widely available products used by millions of people around the world. Unfortunately, the procedure of adding pharmaceutical and psychoactive substances has recently been observed, in order to increase the effectiveness of supplements in the form of hemp oils. For this reason, it is extremely important to develop analytical methods for the detection of substances prohibited in dietary supplements and food products. In the present study, using the LC–MS/MS technique, an innovative method for the detection and quantification of 117 synthetic cannabinoids and 13 natural cannabinoids in dietary supplements and food products in the form of oils during one 13-min chromatographic run was developed. Each method was fully validated by characterization of the following parameters: The limit of detection was set to 0.1 ng/mL (100 µg/g, 0.01%). The limit of quantification ranged from 0.05 ng/mL to 50 ng/mL. The criteria assumed for systematic error caused by methodological bias (±20%) resulting from the recovery of analytes after the extraction process, as well as the coefficient of variation (CV) (≤20%), were met for all 130 tested compounds. The positive results of the validation confirmed that the developed methods met the requirements related to the adequacy of their application in a given scope. Additionally, methods developed using the LC–MS/MS technique were verified via proficiency tests. The developed analytical procedure was successfully used in the analysis of hemp oils and capsules containing them in the studied dietary supplements. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Pharmaceuticals, Emerging Contaminants, Analysis and Presence in Food and Environmental Samples)

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18 pages, 733 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Influence of Organic Matter on the Sorption of Cefdinir, Memantine and Praziquantel on Different Soil and Sediment Samples

by Dragana Mutavdžić Pavlović, Kristina Tolić Čop, Helena Prskalo and Mislav Runje

Molecules 2022, 27(22), 8008; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules27228008 - 18 Nov 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1712

Abstract

Pharmaceuticals are known for their great effects and applications in the treatment and suppression of various diseases in human and veterinary medicine. The development and modernization of science and technologies have led to a constant increase in the production and consumption of various classes of pharmaceuticals, so they pose a threat to the environment, which can be subjected to the sorption process on the solid phase. The efficiency of sorption is determined by various parameters, of which the physicochemical properties of the compound and the sorbent are very important. One of these parameters that determine pharmaceutical mobility in soil or sediment is the soil–water partition coefficient normalized to organic carbon (K_oc), whose determination was the purpose of this study. The influence of organic matter, suspended in an aqueous solution of pharmaceutical (more precisely: cefdinir, memantine, and praziquantel), was studied for five different types of soil and sediment samples from Croatia. The linear, Freundlich, and Dubinin–Raduskevich sorption isotherms were used to determine specific constants such as the partition coefficient K_d, which directly describes the strength of sorbate and sorbent binding. The linear model proved to be the best with the highest correlation coefficients, R² > 0.99. For all three pharmaceuticals, a positive correlation between sorption affinity described by K_d and K_oc and the amount of organic matter was demonstrated. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Pharmaceuticals, Emerging Contaminants, Analysis and Presence in Food and Environmental Samples)

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13 pages, 1787 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Comparative Study between Screen-Printed and Solid-Contact Electrodes for the Stability-Indicating Determination of Bromazepam

by Sherif A. Abdel-Gawad and Ali Altharawi

Molecules 2022, 27(21), 7616; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules27217616 - 6 Nov 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2631

Abstract

Stability-indicating methods are awesome tools to ensure the safety and efficacy of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). An accurate comparative study involving the use of potentiometric sensors for the determination of bromazepam (BRZ) in the presence of its main product of degradation and impurity was performed by the fabrication of two membrane electrodes. A screen-printed electrode (SPE) and a solid-contact glassy carbon electrode (SCE) were fabricated and their performance optimized. The fabricated sensors showed a linear electrochemical response in the concentration range 1.0 × 10⁻⁶ M to 1.0 × 10⁻² M. The electrodes exhibited Nernstian slopes of 59.70 mV/decade and 58.10 mV/decade for the BRZ-SPE and BRZ-SCE membrane electrodes, respectively. The electrochemical performance was greatly affected by the medium pH. They showed an almost ideal electrochemical performance between pH 3.0 and pH 6.0. The fabricated membranes were applied successfully for the quantification of BRZ in the presence of up to 90% of its degradation product. Moreover, a successful application of the fabricated electrodes was performed for the sensitive and selective quantification of BRZ in its tablet form without any pretreatment procedure. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Pharmaceuticals, Emerging Contaminants, Analysis and Presence in Food and Environmental Samples)

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12 pages, 573 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Screening and Determination of Synthetic PDE-5 Inhibitors in Adulterated Sexual Enhancement Supplements

by Ammar Abdulrahman Jairoun, Sabaa Saleh Al-Hemyari, Moyad Shahwan, Sa’ed H. Zyoud, Baharudin Ibrahim and Samer H. Zyoud

Molecules 2022, 27(19), 6737; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules27196737 - 9 Oct 2022

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2331

Abstract

This paper reports an important investigation and quantification of adulteration of sexual enhancement supplements with prescription medicines available in United Arab Emirates (UAE): tadalafil, sildenafil and vardenafil. A total of 158 sexual enhancement supplements were collected and analyzed in the current study. The samples were screened using REVERSE-phase liquid chromatography tandem high-resolution mass spectrometry/mass spectrometry (RP-HPLC-MS/MS). Of all sexual enhancements, 12.7% (95% CI: 7.4–18) contained undeclared sildenafil, 3.8% (95% CI: 0.78–6.81) contained undeclared tadalafil and 1.9% (95% CI: 0.25–4.05) contained undeclared vardenafil. Of all sexual enhancement supplements, 13.9% (95% CI: 8.5–19.4) contained significant concentrations of sildenafil, tadalafil or vardenafil. While the study found relatively low levels of undeclared pharmaceutical ingredients in the sexual enhancement dietary supplements available on the UAE market, it is likely that patients with ED tend to consume multiple such supplements daily, thereby exposing themselves to highly elevated cumulative levels. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Pharmaceuticals, Emerging Contaminants, Analysis and Presence in Food and Environmental Samples)

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13 pages, 1372 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Development and Validation of Multi-Residue Method for Drugs Analysis in Human Feces by Liquid Chromatography–Tandem Mass Spectrometry

by Gabriel Míguez-Suárez, Alejandra Cardelle-Cobas, Laura Sinisterra-Loaiza, Beatriz Vázquez, Alberto Cepeda and Carolina Nebot

Molecules 2022, 27(5), 1474; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules27051474 - 22 Feb 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2275

Abstract

The use of veterinary drugs in animal production is a common practice to secure animal and human health. However, residues of administrated drugs could be present in animal food products. Levels of drugs in food of animal origin are regulated within the European Union. In recent years, residues have been detected not only in food, but also in the environmental elements such as water or soil, meaning that humans are involuntarily exposed to these substances. This article presents a multiclass method for the analysis of various therapeutic groups of pharmaceuticals in human feces. Pharmaceuticals are extracted from feces with an acid extraction solvent, and after filtration the extract was analyzed by HPLC–MS/MS. A limit of detection of 10 ng/g was achieved for 9 pharmaceuticals, with linearity over 0.99 and repeatability and reproducibility lower than 20%. The method was satisfactorily applied in 25 feces samples of individuals that had declared not to be under medical treatment for the last two months. Results indicate the presence of six different compounds at concentration between 10 and 456 ng/g. This preliminary study showed the involuntary exposure of human gut microbiota to active substances such as pharmaceuticals Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Pharmaceuticals, Emerging Contaminants, Analysis and Presence in Food and Environmental Samples)

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12 pages, 413 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Adulteration of Weight Loss Supplements by the Illegal Addition of Synthetic Pharmaceuticals

by Ammar A. Jairoun, Sabaa Saleh Al-Hemyari, Moyad Shahwan and Sa’ed H. Zyoud

Molecules 2021, 26(22), 6903; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules26226903 - 16 Nov 2021

Cited by 24 | Viewed by 4132

Abstract

Weight loss supplements that have illegal additives of pharmaceutical drugs or analogues have additional health risks, and customers may not be aware of what they are taking. This research is an essential investigation and quantification of illegally added pharmaceuticals or prescription medications, specifically fluoxetine, phenolphthalein, and sibutramine, in herbal weight loss supplements offered for sale in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). In this case, 137 weight loss supplements were collected and analyzed in this study. Reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography with UV absorption detection coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (RP-HPLC-MS/MS) analyses were used to determine the presence of the pharmaceutical chemicals. Among the weight loss supplements, 15.3% (95% CI: 9.2–21.4) contained undeclared sibutramine, 13.9% (95% CI: 8.01–19.7) contained undeclared phenolphthalein, and 5.1% (95% CI: 1.4–8.8) contained undeclared fluoxetine. Amongst all weight loss supplements, 17.5% (95% CI: 11.07–24) contained significant concentrations of either sibutramine, phenolphthalein, or fluoxetine. Whilst weight loss herbal supplements offered for sale in the UAE have relatively low percentages of undeclared pharmaceuticals, many people take several different supplements daily and may encounter quite high levels of combined exposure to toxic compounds. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Pharmaceuticals, Emerging Contaminants, Analysis and Presence in Food and Environmental Samples)

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