Analysis of steroid hormones and their conjugated forms in water and urine by on-line solid-phase extraction coupled to liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry

BACKGROUND: In recent years, endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) have been found in rivers that receive significant inputs of wastewater. Among EDCs, natural and synthetic steroid hormones are recognized for their potential to mimic or interfere with normal hormonal functions (development, growth and reproduction), even at ultratrace levels (ng L(−1)). Although conjugated hormones are less active than free hormones, they can be cleaved and release the unconjugated estrogens through microbial processes before or during the treatment of wastewater. Due to the need to identify and quantify these compounds, a new fully automated method was developed for the simultaneous determination of the two forms of several steroid hormones (free and conjugated) in different water matrixes and in urine. RESULTS: The method is based on online solid phase extraction coupled with liquid chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry (SPE–LC–MS/MS). Several parameters were assessed in order to optimize the efficiency of the method, such as the type and flow rate of the mobile phase, the various SPE columns, chromatography as well as different sources and ionization modes for MS. The method demonstrated good linearity (R(2) > 0.993) and precision with a coefficient of variance of less than 10 %. The quantification limits vary from a minimum of 3–15 ng L(−1) for an injection volume of 1 and 5 mL, respectively, with the recovery values of the compounds varying from 72 to 117 %. CONCLUSION: The suggested method has been validated and successfully applied for the simultaneous analysis of several steroid hormones in different water matrixes and in urine. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13065-016-0174-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.