Determination of anti-dementia drugs in wastewater, serum and human urine samples by hollow fiber liquid phase microextraction coupled with high performance liquid chromatography

In this study, hollow fiber liquid phase microextraction coupled with high performance liquid chromatography is used for determination of rivastigmine and donepezil in wastewater, serum and human urine samples. The method is based upon the utilization of liquid membranes, and, in addition to reduce the consumption of the organic solvents it provides a suitable sample clean-up. According to the method, the target analytes are extracted from an aqueous sample solution into a liquid membrane, and then they are selectively back-extracted into an aqueous acceptor solution. The method was coupled with high performance liquid chromatography and the factors influencing the extraction efficiency were thoroughly examined and optimized. Under the optimal conditions, the method provides a good linearity (in the range of 2–1000 ng mL−1 (R2 > 0.995)). The method provides low limits of detection (in the ranges of 0.5-0.7 ng mL−1) and the enrichment factors are in the range of 150-222.