Determination of selected steroid hormones in some surface water around animal farms in Cape Town using HPLC-DAD

Abstract

In this study, a method for the simultaneous determination of two steroid hormones, 17β-estradiol (E2) and estriol (E3), and a hormone mimicking polycarbonate, bisphenol-A (BPA), was developed and validated.Thiswas thereafter used for the determination of the levels of the hormones in surface water collected around some livestock farms. The sensitivity of the method allowed the LODs and LOQs of the hormones and mimic hormone in the range 1.14–2.510 and 3.42–7.53 μg/L, respectively. The results revealedwide variabilityinthe concentrations ofE2andE3, while BPAwas not detected at any of the sampling stations. The concentration of E3 ranged between <1.14 and 45.5 μg/L (N= 120) in station 2 water. The highest concentration ofE2 (15.7μg/L,N=80)wasobservedinwater from station 1. The varied concentrations may be connected with the nature and sources of release, inconsistencies in analyte distribution due to dynamics of water flow pattern and the physical/chemical properties of the receiving water bodies.