The determination of polychlorinated biphenyl in small samples of monkey milk and tissues. II. Extraction efficiency.

The extraction efficiency of benzene, toluene, dichloromethane, acetone:hexane and chloroform:methanol with respect to lipids and polychlorinated biphenyls was investigated using small samples of monkey adipose tissue, liver, kidney, brain, skin, feces and milk. The most efficient solvents were: acetone:hexane and chloroform:methanol for brain, feces, kidney, liver and milk; acetone:hexane and dichloromethane for adipose tissue; acetone:hexane and toluene for blood and dichloromethane for skin tissue. Within these solvent pairs acetone:hexane was the most outstanding with respect to an average of 90% PCB recoveries from fortified samples in the range of 0.02-2 ppm. In addition, a comparison was made between the lipid determination before and after Florisil column chromatography. Only adipose and blood lipids were sufficiently recovered from Florisil to make a lipid determination after chromatography feasible.