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The (partial) replacement of synthetic polymers with bioplastics is due to increased production of conventional packaging plastics causing for severe environmental pollution with plastics waste. The bioplastics, however, represent complex mixtures of known and unknown (bio)polymers, fillers, plasticizers, stabilizers, flame retardant, pigments, antioxidants, hydrophobic polymers such as poly(lactic acid), polyethylene, polyesters, glycol, or poly(butylene succinate), and little is known of their chemical safety for both the environment and the human health. Polymerization reactions of bioplastics can produce no intentionally added chemicals to the bulk material, which could be toxic, as well. When polymers are used to food packing, then the latter chemicals could also migrate from the polymer to food. This fact compromises the safety for consumers, as well. The scarce data on chemical safety of bioplastics makes a gap in knowledge of their toxicity to humans and environment. Thus, development of exact analytical protocols for determining chemicals of bioplastics in environmental and food samples as well as packing polymers can only provide warrant for reliable conclusive evidence of their safety for both the human health and the environment. The task is compulsory according to legislation Directives valid to environmental protection, food control, and assessment of the risk to human health. The quantitative and structural determination of analytes is primary research task of analysis of polymers. The methods of mass spectrometry are fruitfully used for these purposes. Methodological development of exact analytical mass spectrometric tools for reliable structural analysis of bioplastics only guarantees their safety, efficacy, and quality to both humans and environment. This study, first, highlights innovative stochastic dynamics equations processing exactly mass spectrometric measurands and, thus, producing exact analyte quantification and 3D molecular and electronic structural analyses. There are determined synthetic polymers such as poly(ethylenglycol), poly(propylene glycol), and polyisoprene as well as biopolymers in bags for foodstuffs made from renewable cellulose and starch, and containing, in total within the 20,416–17,495 chemicals per sample of the composite biopolymers. Advantages of complementary employment in mass spectrometric methods and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy is highlighted. The study utilizes ultra-high resolution electrospray ionization mass spectrometric and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopic data on biodegradable plastics bags for foodstuffs; high accuracy quantum chemical static methods, molecular dynamics; and chemometrics. There is achieved method performance |r| = 0.99981 determining poly(propylene glycol) in bag for foodstuff containing 20,416 species and using stochastic dynamics mass spectrometric formulas. The results highlight their great capability and applicability to the analytical science as well as relevance to both the fundamental research and to the industry.
Bifidobacteria serve as indicators of fecal contamination in tropical water bodies
Vol 1, Issue 1, 2020
VIEWS - 4071 (Abstract)
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Abstract
Human fecal contamination poses a significant public health concern in water sources, yet standard indicator microorganisms for detecting such contamination fail to pinpoint the exact source. The genus Bifidobacterium, particularly species like B. adolescentis and B. dentium, has been suggested as a potential marker for identifying human fecal pollution, though this proposal has yet to be tested in tropical settings. This study aimed to assess the presence of bifidobacteria in a water sample from the Mesolandia swamp in the Colombian Caribbean, as well as in 260 human fecal samples and 94 samples from domestic animals in a nearby settlement. DNA was extracted from each sample and subjected to PCR amplification with gender-specific primers targeting the 16S rRNA gene, followed by DGGE (Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis) separation. DGGE bands were then excised, re-amplified, sequenced, and compared to the GenBank database. The DGGE profiling revealed the presence of eight Bifidobacteria species in the water sample, matching those found in human feces. The proposed markers B. adolescentis and B. dentium were also detected in domestic animal feces. Despite the efforts, the study was unable to identify a unique Bifidobacteria species that could serve as a reliable marker for human fecal contamination in tropical environments under the evaluated conditions. Nevertheless, the methodology employed provided a more precise approximation to the source of fecal contamination than traditional cultural methods, as identical DNA sequences were found in both water and fecal samples.
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References
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Prof. Hongxing Dai
Beijing University of Technology, China
