Determination of 81 pharmaceutical drugs by high performance liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry with hybrid triple quadrupole-linear ion trap in different types of water in Serbia

The aim of the work was to study the occurrence of pharmaceuticals in waste, surface, underground, and drinking water samples collected in Serbia. A multi-residue method for the analysis of 81 pharmaceutical drugs from different therapeutic classes in the various types of water was applied. Twenty-five composite water samples were prepared using solid-phase extraction and the presence of 81 pharmaceutical compounds in the extracts was analyzed by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry with hybrid triple quadrupole-linear ion trap (UPLC-QqLIT-MS/MS). Forty seven compounds of 81 drugs were found in four different types of analyzed water. The highest concentrations of ibuprofen of 20.1 μg L− 1, 10,11-epoxycarbamazepine of 16.2 μg L− 1, 2-hydroxycarbamazepine of 15.9 μg L− 1 and acetaminophen of 15.7 μg L− 1 were found in municipal waste water sample. Results revealed the presence of salicylic acid in 41.67% of water samples, carbamazepine in 36.11%, propranolol and irbesartan in 30.56%. The obtained results were discussed in relation to the relevant data available in literature. This is the first attempt to assess the occurrence of these 81 pharmaceutical residues in water samples in Serbia.