Effects of organic solvents on the high performance liquid chromatographic analysis of the cyanobacterial toxin cylindrospermopsin and its recovery from environmental eutrophic waters by solid phase extraction.

The effect of organic solvents on the high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis of cylindrospermopsin using photodiode array detection was examined since organic solvents are commonly used to extract this toxin from cyanobacteria and in the mobile phase compositions used in HPLC. Increasing concentrations of methanol resulted in an increase in the UV absorbance of purified cylindrospermopsin according to spectrometry, but to a marked decrease during HPLC analysis when the concentration of this solvent was greater than 50% methanol, or when acetonitrile concentrations exceeded 30% (v/v). Precipitation of cylindrospermopsin at these high concentrations of organic solvents was not observed. Solid phase extraction methods were developed to recover the toxin from spent extracellular growth medium after laboratory culture of Cylindrospermopsis raciborskii strain CR3 as an aid to toxin purification and from spiked environmental water samples. Using C18 and polygraphite carbon cartridges in series, 100% recoveries of cylindrospermopsin were achieved for lake waters spiked at 1 micro g l(-1).