Qualitative screening of pharmaceuticals and personal care products in water and farm green mussels at straits of Johor

Abstract

Pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) are ubiquitously found in surface water and aquatic organisms. They include antibiotic, pain killer, hypertension drug, anti-inflammatory drug and cosmetics compounds. Green Mussels (Perna viridis) are known as filter feeder, which can potentially accumulate PPCPs. Although this type of studies have been conducted in many parts of the world, information on PPCPs pertaining to mussels in South East Asian countries, specifically in Malaysia, is still limited. Therefore, the aim of this study was to qualitatively screen the PPCPs occurred in mussels and the respective surface water surrounding a commercially cultured mussel farm. The effects of tidal and depth on the occurrences of PPCPs in mussel and surface water were reticulated. Mussels and water samples were collected during high tide and low tide at different depth in the mussel farm located at the estuary of Sungai Melayu, Johor, Malaysia. The collected samples were extracted using Solid-Phase Extraction (SPE) method prior to the analysis by Liquid Chromatography tandem with Quadrapole Time-Of-Flight Mass Spectrometry (LC QTOF-MS/MS). The detected compounds were further screened using database by PubChem, WHO Drug Index and Human Metabolome Database for their type and category. The findings revealed that 10 PPCPs compounds were found in water samples and 73 compounds were found in mussel samples. Nigericin, nicotinyl, ammodendrine and 3,4-DMMA were among compounds that occurred in both mussel and surface water. It was also noted that compounds were detected higher during low tide in mussels compare to that of high tides. No significant difference for number of compounds was observed in mussel between both 0 m and 3 m. This study has demonstrated that mussels possess high affinity to accumulate PPCPs from their surrounding water owing to their filter feeding character.