Development of Phthalate Analysis Methodology by High Performance Liquid Chromatography Coupled with Diode Array Detector (HPLC/DAD)

Abstract

Phthalates are toxic for human beings and their toxicity can be expressed in various forms like teratogenic, mutagenic, estrogenic and carcinogenic effects as well as by endocrine disturbances. The most commonly encountered phthalate molecules in the environment are: DMP, DEP, DnBP, BBP, DisoDP, DALP, DNP), DEHP, and DnOP. In order to assess the health and environmental impacts of phthalates, it is necessary to access these compounds at the molecular level in natural systems, including water. Therefore, our study was devoted to setting up a protocol including phthalate extraction step, followed with a development of a HPLC/DAD analysis methodology, using artificial mixtures of different standard phthalate compounds and water standard reference material we made in our laboratory. As results, we obtained good performance characteristics such as detection limits (ranging 1.1 - 40.0 ng/L), limits of quantification (from 3.75 to 134 ng /L), coefficients of variation (CV) lower than 10 %, and quality control cards showing that the HPLC/DAD methodology we developed was under statistical control and suitable for phthalate determination in water.