Malaysian Journal of Analytical Sciences Vol 20 No 2 (2016): 205 - 223

 

 

 

CHROMATOGRAPHIC DETERMINATION OF TOLUENE AND ITS METABOLITES IN URINE FOR TOLUENE EXPOSURE – A REVIEW

 

(Penentuan Kromatografi Toluena dan Metaboliknya di dalam Urin bagi Pendedahan Toluena – Satu Ulasan)

 

Mohamad Raizul Zinalibdin^{1, 2}, Abdul Rahim Yacob¹, Mohd Marsin Sanagi^{1, 3}*

 

¹Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science,

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia

²Department of Chemistry,

Johor Branch, Jalan Abdul Samad, 80100 Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia

³Centre for Sustainable Nanomaterials,

Ibnu Sina Institute for Scientific and Industrial Research,

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia

 

*Corresponding author: marsin@kimia.fs.utm.my

 

 

Received: 1 November 2015; Accepted: 10 March 2016

 

 

Abstract

The determinations of toluene and their metabolites in biological samples such as urine and blood allow the estimation of the degree of exposure to this chemical. Chromatographic methods and preliminary methods are now universally employed for this purpose. Preliminary color test methods are well established for qualitative determination of toluene and its metabolites. Mobile test kits using color test methods are a vast tool for screening urine samples but chromatographic methods are still needed for confirmation and quantitative analysis. Gas chromatography (GC) methods are well-adapted for the determination of toluene metabolite in urine, but these methods often require several pretreatment steps. Meanwhile, high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) is becoming a powerful tool for the accurate and easy determination of toluene metabolites considering its decisive advantages for routine monitoring. Furthermore, recent development in HPLC could widen the usefulness of this method to solve the most complex analytical problems that could be encountered during the measurement.

 

Keywords: toluene, toluene metabolites, preliminary test, gas chromatography, high performance liquid chromatography

 

Abstrak

Penentuan toluena dan metabolitnya dalam sampel biologi seperti urin dan darah membolehkan anggaran tahap pendedahan terhadap bahan kimia ini. Kaedah kromatografi dan kaedah awalan merupakan kaedah yang sering digunakan untuk tujuan ini pada masa kini. Kaedah awalan menggunakan ujian warna telah dibangunkan untuk penentuan kualitatif toluena dan metabolit. Kit ujian mudah alih menggunakan ujian warna meluas digunakan bagi pemeriksaan sampel urin tetapi kaedah kromatografi masih diperlukan untuk pengesahan analisis kuantitatif. Kaedah kromatografi gas adalah kaedah yang kerap digunakan bagi menentukan metabolit toluena dalam urin namun kaedah ini sering memerlukan beberapa langkah rawatan awal. Sementara itu, kromatografi cecair berprestasi tinggi (HPLC) menjadi alat yang berkuasa untuk penentuan tepat dan mudah metabolit toluena memandangkan kelebihannya yang jelas untuk pemantauan rutin. Tambahan pula, perkembangan terkini dalam HPLC boleh memperluaskan kegunaan kaedah ini bagi menyelesaikan masalah analisis rumit yang boleh dihadapi semasa pengukuran.

 

Kata kunci: toluena, metabolit toluena, ujian awalan, kromatografi gas, kromatografi cecair berprestasi tinggi

 

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