1H NMR: a tool to study the fate of pollutants in the environment

In situ ¹H NMR, directly performed on biological fluids is a very powerful tool to study the fate of pollutants in the environment. The biodegradation of 2-aminobenzothiazole by Rhodococcus rhodochrous was monitored by reverse phase HPLC and by in situ ¹H NMR, methods performed directly on culture media without purification. The xenobiotic was biotransformed into a hydroxylated derivative. The chemical structure of this metabolite was determined by a long-range ¹H–¹⁵N heteronuclear shift correlation without any previous ¹⁵N enrichment of the compound. This approach allowed the assignment of the metabolite structure to 2-amino-6-hydroxybenzothiazole.