TECHNICAL PAPERS
Fluid Extraction-Supercritical Fluid Chromatography
—Monitoring Microbial Activity—
Shimadzu Review 77[3・4] (2021.3)
Abstract
Monitoring microbial activity is important for bioremediation, which uses microorganisms to degrade or remove contaminants from oil-contaminated soil. Microbial activity can be monitored based on bacterial counts and genetic analy-sis, but these methods require substantial time and labor. Simpler and more efficient methods of monitoring are needed, including methods of sample pretreatment.
Quinones participate in electron transfer during respiration at the cell membrane and are an indicator of microbial activ-ity. Quinone profiling is an established method of ascertaining microbial activity and microbial changes that uses high-performance liquid chromatography for analysis. Although quinone profiling is effective for evaluating the degradation performance of microbial communities, the sample pretreatment used to extract quinones from soil is time-consuming and complex.
The authors examined an analytical system that combines supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) and supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) to improve the efficiency of extraction and quantitative analysis of quinones in soil and investigat-ed the resulting labor savings and efficiency improvements in microorganism activity monitoring. The authors demonstrat-ed this system automates the process of analysis from quinone extraction to separation and detection with no complex pretreatment step and substantially reduces the time required for quinone analysis, thereby aiding in microorganism activity monitoring.
1LC Business Unit, Life Science Business Department, Analytical & Measuring instruments Division, Shimadzu Corporation, Kyoto, Japan
2Global Marketing Department, Analytical & Measuring instruments Division, Shimadzu Corporation, Kyoto, Japan
3Kiso-Jiban Consultants Co., Ltd.
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