Sorption and desorption of sulfadiazine in soil and soil-manure systems Original Research Article

Sulfadiazine is a widely used veterinary medicine that has high potential to enter the environment, especially the soil compartment by the application of manure on agricultural land and grass land or by the deposition of dung pats on pasture. Once it reaches the soil environments, it may enter into surface and ground water. Therefore, sorption–desorption behavior of sulfadiazine was studied under laboratory conditions in five different soils varying in their physicochemical properties. A batch equilibration technique was used with initial aqueous solution concentration of sulfadiazine at 5, 0.5, 0.05, and 0.005 μg mL−1. Sorption–desorption data in soils with and without manure were well fitted with Freundlich model in log form (r2, 0.99). A sorption–desorption hysteresis effect was apparent in all soils. A significant amount of sulfadiazine was found tightly bound to the soil particles and did not desorb after the desorption process. Moreover, presence of manure enhanced hysteresis effect. Hysteresis coefficient (H) value from soils in absence of manure (0.9–1.0) increased to the soils in presence of manure (0.9–1.8). Soils in the absence of manure showed low level of KD Sorp. values ranging from 0.1 to 24.3, suggesting low level sorption of sulfadiazine with appreciable risk of run-off and leaching, and in turn, surface and ground water contamination. However, presence of manure increased the sorption tendency of sulfadiazine significantly (KD Sorp., 6.9–40.2). KD values pertaining to desorption cycle increased from 1.2–90.4 to 10.4–167.3 in absence and presence of manure, respectively.