Natural versus unnatural halogenated organics

DDT (trace A) and its metabolites DDE and DDD (trace B), and traces F and G are the commercial polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) mixtures Arochlor 1242 (trace F) and Arochlor 1254 (trace G). As is illustrated, extracts of local Laurencia species (traces C and D), and the extract of a halogenating bacterium Chromobacterium sp. (trace E), contain compounds of similar retention time to DDT and its metabolites. Traces H and J were produced from extracts of Plocamium cartilagineum and Chondria californica, two locally abundant red algae, and trace I was produced from a species unidentified sponge of the genus Verongia. In this case mixtures of halogenated natural compounds fall within the limits of detectability of the PCBs. 

The data in Fig. 2 must be carefully interpreted, as I do not suggest that past pollutant halogenated hydrocarbon analyses of marine species have yielded erroneous results. Rather, these experiments were designed to shed light upon the possible sources of sample contamination in the marine environment and to illustrate the similar chromatographic behaviors of these contaminants. 

Anderson, R.J., Wolfe, M.S. and Faulkner, D.J., 1974. Autotoxic antibiotic production by a marine Chromobacterium. Mar. Biol., 27 281—285. 

Ashworth, R.B. and Cormier, M.J., 1967. Isolation of 2,6-dibromophenol from the marine hemichordate Balanoglossus biminiensis. Science, 155 1558—1559. 

and Duke, C.C., 1974. Precursors of tyrian purple. In Food and Drugs from the Sea Proceedings. Mar. Technol., soc., 345—353. 

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