Occurrence of the antiepileptic carbamazepine in water and bivalves from marine environments: a review.

A vast literature has already demonstrated that pharmaceutical drugs exert negative impacts on aquatic organisms but data is sparse on the occurrence of these contaminants in marine aquatic environments and their biota, particularly in comparison with freshwater systems. Marine bivalves are good bioindicator species for environmental pollution monitoring. This review summarizes the current knowledge on carbamazepine (CBZ) concentrations in the marine environment (seawater and bivalves) and the analytical methods involved in the drug determination. Carbamazepine was chosen based on its ubiquitous occurrence and proven negative impacts on the aquatic organisms. Overall, CBZ is distributed in the marine environment with concentrations up to ∼ 1 µg/L, revealing its stability and high persistence. Also, CBZ was found in some species of marine bivalves, with concentrations up to 13 ng/g dry weight, however, a bioaccumulation factor could not be calculated due to the absence of CBZ determination in seawater samples for most of the studies. CAPSULE: Carbamazepine is found in seawater up to the low µg/L level, and in bivalve tissue up to a few ng/g DW, with SPE and LC as the techniques of choice for drug extraction and identification.