The determination of pharmaceutical residues in cooked and uncooked marine bivalves using pressurised liquid extraction, solid-phase extraction and liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry

Gillian McEneff, Leon Barron, Brian Kelleher, Brett Paull, Brian Quinn

An optimised and validated method for the determination of pharmaceutical residues in blue mussels (Mytilus spp.) is presented herein, as well as an investigation of the effect of cooking (by steaming) on any potential difference in human exposure risk. Selected pharmaceuticals included two non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (diclofenac and mefenamic acid), an antibiotic (trimethoprim), an anti-epileptic (carbamazepine) and a lipid regulator (gemfibrozil). An in vivo exposure experiment was set up in the laboratory in which mussels were exposed either directly by injection (10 ng) or daily through spiked artificial seawater (ASW) over 96 h. In liquid matrices, pharmaceutical residues were either determined using liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) directly, or in combination with solid-phase extraction (SPE) for analyte concentration purposes. The extraction of pharmaceuticals from mussel tissues used an additional pressurised liquid extraction step prior to SPE and LCMS/MS. Limits of quantification of between 2 and 46 ng L−1 were achieved for extracted cooking water and ASW, between 2 and 64 μg L−1 for ASW in exposure tanks, and between 4 and 29 ng g−1 for mussel tissue. Method linearities were achieved for pharmaceuticals in each matrix with correlation coefficients of R2>0.975. A selection of exposed mussels was also cooked (via steaming) and analysed using the optimised method to observe any effect on detectable concentrations of parent pharmaceuticals present. An overall increase in pharmaceutical residues in the contaminated mussel tissue and cooking water was observed after cooking.