Micellar electrokinetic chromatography with bile salts for predicting ecotoxicity of aromatic compounds

The retention factors of several aromatic compounds were obtained by micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC) using cholate, taurocholate, deoxycholate and deoxytaurocholate as micellar systems. The possibility of using these retention factors to describe and predict several ecotoxicological activities of different aromatic compounds was evaluated. Adequate correlations retention–ecotoxicity (log LC50 in fish and daphnia, log EC50 in green algae and daphnia, chronic values in fish and green algae, bioconcentration factor, and soil sorption coefficient) were obtained for the micellar systems studied. The predictive ability of the models obtained for these micellar systems was compared. Predicted values concur with the experimental log LC50 in Bluegill, Rainbow trout, Fathead minnows and Daphnia Magna values for the compounds studied. The results obtained indicated the usefulness of the MEKC systems investigated for the rapid ecotoxicity assessment of aromatic compounds.