Chiral pollutants biotransformation

Previous sections have illustrated the complexity of most of the compound-specific analyses developed in the environmental field. It is easy then to figure out that the accurate determination of a possible enantiomeric enrichment of chiral pollutants is even more difficult owing to the many co-elution problems and low concentration levels of the analytes. This difficulty could explain the somehow limited research conducted on this topic. However, its interest is clear. Industrial contaminants, such as PCBs or toxafene, are released into the environment as racemates. Therefore, a nonracemic composition of these pollutants might be evidence of selective biotransformation and/or bioaccumulation. Some studies have also pointed to different biological and toxic behaviour for each of the enantiomers [56], something that can be especially relevant for pesticides exhibiting chiral properties. 

The biotransformation of chiral pollutants includes the conversion of the pollutants into some other products, which may or may not be toxic depending upon the reactions involved in their biotransformation. Normally,... 

Moreover, a-, p- and y-HBCD diastereoisomers are chiral. Thus HBCD have three pairs of enantiomers (+)a, (—)a, (+)p, (—)p, (+)y and (—)y. The enantiomers have identical physicochemical properties and abiotic degradation rates, but may have different biological and toxicological properties and therefore different biotransformation rates. These transformations may result in nonracemic mixtures of the enantiomers that were industrially synthesized as racemates [16, 19]. The rates of metabolisation process of the enantiomers of chiral environmental pollutants may be significantly different [20],... 

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