Attached
Antibiotics are among the emerging micro contaminants in the aquatic environment due to their
potential adverse effects on the ecosystem and possibly on human health. Four important
antibiotic classes, sulfanomides [sulfadiazine (SDI), sulfamethoxazol (SMX)], penicillin
[amoxicillin (AMX), ampicilline (AMP)], tetracycline [oxytetracycline (OTC), tetracycline
(TET)] and macrolids [erythromycin (ERM)] are used for human and veterinary medicine, were
studied. Triplicate samples of hospital effluents water and sediment were collected from 50
sampling sites in different area of the country and Horton plaines as pristine environment for the
study. Solid-Phase Extraction (SPE) was employed to concentrate anibiotics and quantification
of were done by High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). Recoveries for each
antibiotic was remained between 83% ± 0.021 to 95% ± 0.034. Among the selected antibiotics
tested; the highest concentrations of AMX and AMP were recorded in hospital effluent water.
AMX and AMP were detected range between 0.001-0.023 ppm and 0.001 - 0.024 ppm
respectively. The other antibiotics concentrations were; TET (water: 0-0.001 ppm, sediments:
N.D); SDI (water: 0.001- 0.003ppm, sediments: ,001-0.003ppm); SMX (water: 0.001- 0.018ppm,
sediments: 0.001-0.002ppm); ERM (water: 0.001-0.008ppm, sediments: 0.001-0.003ppm)
respectively. Relatively high removal efficiency was detected for TET (50-100%) where
desending order was followed by SDI (63-72%), SMX (52-72%), ERM (48-100%), AMP (40-
54%) and AMX (35-58%) respectively. The results of the study can be incorporated into
environmental risk assessments of the particular contaminants as the published information
regarding antibiotic contamination ststus in water and sediment are limited in Sri Lanka.
