Accelerating Sample Preparation for Determination of Water Toxins

Genevac has published an informative customer article that reviews the development of a new sample preparation method using its EZ-2 centrifugal evaporator to help simplify and accelerate the detection and quantitation of algal toxins in surface water.

Due to a warming global environment there has been a rise in occurrences of cyanobacteria blooms in lakes which can generate cyanotoxins. With surface water a major source of drinking water, the presence of cyano bacterial blooms pose a potential threat to human health.

Using Ultra-high Performance Liquid Chromatography (UPLC) researchers have been able to improve the analytical method for determining cyanotoxins with improved analyte separation, sensitivity and increased speed of analysis. However, the commonly used solid-phase extraction (SPE) sample preparation technique for UPLC determination of cyanotoxins in surface water is very time consuming.

The article describes how direct solvent evaporation using a Genevac EZ-2 evaporator was evaluated and proven as an effective technique for reducing the lengthy sample preparation process and improving the efficiency of the UPLC analytical method. The article is titled ‘Detection and Quantification of Algal Toxins in Surface Water’ and can be downloaded from the company website.