Investigating the presence of omeprazole in waters by liquid chromatography coupled to low and high resolution mass spectrometry: degradation experiments

Omeprazole is one of the most consumed pharmaceuticals around the world. However, this compound is scarcely detected in urban wastewater and surface water. The absence of this pharmaceutical in the aquatic ecosystem might be due to its degradation in wastewater treatment plants, as well as in receiving water. In this work, different laboratory‐controlled degradation experiments have been carried out on surface water in order to elucidate generated omeprazole transformation products (TPs). Surface water spiked with omeprazole was subjected to hydrolysis, photo‐degradation under both sunlight and ultraviolet radiation and chlorination. Analyses by liquid chromatography coupled to quadrupole time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry (LC–QTOF MS) permitted identification of up to 17 omeprazole TPs. In a subsequent step, the TPs identified were sought in surface water and urban wastewater by LC–QTOF MS and by LC coupled to tandem mass spectrometry with triple quadrupole. The parent omeprazole was not detected in any of the samples, but four TPs were found in several water samples. The most frequently detected compound was OTP 5 (omeprazole sulfide), which might be a reasonable candidate to be included in monitoring programs rather than the parent omeprazole. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.