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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)] used for human and veterinary medicine, were
studied. Triplicate samples o f hospital effluents water and sediment were collected from 50
sampling sites in different area of the country. Solid-Phase Extraction (SPE) was employed to
concentrate antibiotics and quantification was done by High Performance Liquid
Chromatography (HPLC). Recoveries for each antibiotic were remained between 83%±0.021
to 95%±0.034. Among the selected antibiotics tested; the highest concentrations o f AMX and
AMP were recorded in hospital effluent water while OTC was not detected. AMX and AMP
were ranged 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: 0.001-0.003
ppm, sediments: 0.001-0.003 ppm); SMX (water: 0.001-0.018 ppm, sediments: 0.001-0.002
ppm); ERM (water: 0.001-0.008 ppm, sediments: 0.001-0.003 ppm) respectively. A relatively
high removal efficiency was detected for TET (50-100%) where descending 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 status in water and sediment are limited in Sri Lanka.
