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In this work, we are pleased to present for the first time a 3D-printed electrochemical device using a lab-made conductive filament based on graphite (Gr) and polylactic acid (PLA) polymer matrix for the simultaneous detection of amoxicillin (AMX) and paracetamol (PAR). The sensor was properly characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), and cyclic voltammetry (CV). Compared to the commercial glassy carbon electrode (GCE), the superior performance of the 3D-Gr/PLA electrode was verified with a 3.8-fold more favored charge transfer. A differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) method was proposed providing a linear working range of 4 to 12 μmol L-1 for both analytes and a limit of detection (LOD) of 0.80 and 0.51 μmol L-1 for AMX and PAR, respectively. Additionally, repeatability studies (n = 5, RSD < 5.7%) indicated excellent precision, and recovery percentages ranging from 89 to 109% when applied to synthetic human urine, saliva, and plasma samples, attested to the accuracy of the method. The studies also indicate that the sensor does not suffer significant interference from common substances (antibiotics and biomarkers) present in the biological fluids, which makes it a promising analytical tool considering its low-cost, ease of manufacturing, robustness, and electrochemical performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The changes in pH and the resulting presence of free nitrous acid (FNA) or free ammonia (FA) often inhibit antibiotic biodegradation during nitritation. However, the specific mechanisms through which pH, FNA and FA influence antibiotic removal and the fate of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) are not yet fully understood. In this study, the effects of pH, FNA, and FA on the removal of cefalexin and amoxicillin during nitritation were investigated. The results revealed that the decreased antibiotic removal under both acidic condition (pH 4.5) and alkaline condition (pH 9.5) was due to the inhibition of the expression of amoA in ammonia-oxidizing bacteria and functional genes (hydrolase-encoding genes, transferase-encoding genes, lyase-encoding genes, and oxidoreductase-encoding genes) in heterotrophs. Furthermore, acidity was the primary inhibitor of antibiotic removal at pH 4.5, followed by FNA. Antibiotic removal was primarily inhibited by alkalinity at pH 9.5, followed by FA. The proliferation of ARGs mediated by mobile genetic element was promoted under both acidic and alkaline conditions, attributed to the promotion of FNA and FA, respectively. Overall, this study highlights the inhibitory effects of acidity and alkalinity on antibiotic removal during nitritation., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Sorption by layered double hydroxides (LDH) is gaining substantial interest for remediating emerging contaminants, including pharmaceuticals from wastewaters. Findings from a sorbent material performing successfully in lab-based studies using non-environmental (laboratory-sourced) water cannot be assumed to translate to equal performance under environmental downstream applications. However, studies evaluating sorbent material performance for removal of pollutants and understanding material interactions with environmental waters are limited. This study evaluates the removal of the antibiotic amoxicillin (AMX) using a Mg 2 Al-NO 3 -LDH sorbent material from laboratory-grade water and wastewater effluent (WWE). AMX is successfully removed (94.53 ± 4.30 % within 24 h) in laboratory-grade water (under batch sorption conditions: 100 μg/L AMX, 0.2 g/L LDH, 20 °C). The comparison of LDH removal performance in laboratory grade and WWE shows a decreased maximum removal of AMX in WWE (13.39 ± 5.53 %). A lower final AMX concentration is observed in the WWE without the presence of LDH, compared to the 'removal' experiments in WWE with the presence of LDH, indicating a contribution of non-sorption removal pathways of AMX. This is proposed to be due to the difference in metal concentrations in the WWE with and without LDH present. The presence of LDH is found to decrease concentrations of metal pollutants in WWE, such as Zn concentration decreasing by 85 % over 24 h, changing water characteristics. Overall, this paper reports that an LDH performs differently in laboratory-sourced water and a wastewater effluent. This provides evidence that sorbent material performance needs to be evaluated in complex water matrices to ensure that it is representative of how a sorbent material will perform in an environmental application, which is the end goal of developing such technologies. Finally, good practice recommendations are provided for future lab-scale sorption experiments evaluating the performance of any new sorbent materials for water treatment applications., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

In this study, a cheap, fast and simple orbital shaker-assisted fatty acid-based switchable solvent microextraction (OS-FASS-ME) procedure was developed for the extraction of amoxicillin (AMOX) in dairy products, pharmaceutical samples and wastewater prior to its spectrophotometric analysis. Fatty acid-based switchable solvents were investigated for extracting AMOX. The key factors of the OS-FASS-ME procedure were optimized using a central composite design. The linearity of OS-FASS-ME procedure was in the range 5-600 ng mL -1 with a correlation coefficient of 0.991. In five replicate experiments for 20 ng mL -1 of AMOX solution, the recovery and relative standard deviation were 95.8% and 2.2%, respectively. Limits of detection and quantification were found 1.5 ng mL -1 and 5 ng mL -1 , respectively. The accuracy, precision, robustness and selectivity of the OS-FASS-ME procedure were investigated in detail under optimum conditions. The OS-FASS-ME procedure was applied to milk, cheese, wastewater, syrups and tablets. A comparison of the results obtained from the reference method and the OS-FASS-ME method showed that the OS-FASS-ME procedure can be successfully applied to complex matrices., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Pharmaceutical pollution has received considerable attention because of the harmful effects of pharmaceutical compounds on human health, even in trace amounts. Amoxicillin is one of the frequently used antibiotics that was included in the list of emerging water pollutants. Therefore, a highly selective and rapid technique for amoxicillin detection is required. In this work, a new aptamer was selected for amoxicillin and utilized for the development of a label-free electrochemical aptasensor. Aptamer selection was performed using the systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment. The selected aptamer showed good specificity against other antibiotics, including the structurally related antibiotics: ampicillin and ciprofloxacin. Among the selected aptamers, Amx3 exhibited the lowest dissociation constant value of 112.9 nM. An aptasensor was developed by immobilization of thiolated Amx3 aptamer onto gold screen-printed electrodes via self-assembly, which was characterized using cyclic voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The detection was realized by monitoring the change in the differential pulse voltammetry peak current in the ferro/ferricyanide redox couple upon binding of the aptasensor to amoxicillin. The aptasensor showed very good sensitivity with an ultralow limit of detection of 0.097 nM. When the aptasensor was tested using actual spiked milk samples, excellent recovery percentages were observed. The label-free electrochemical aptasensor developed herein is a promising tool for the selective and sensitive detection of amoxicillin in environmental samples., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

A dual-emission ratiometric fluorescence sensor (CDs@CdTe@MIP) with a self-calibration function was successfully constructed for AMO detection. In the CDs@CdTe@MIP system, non-imprinted polymer-coated CDs and molecule-imprinted polymer-coated CdTe quantum dots were used as the reference signal and response elements, respectively. The added AMO quenched the fluorescence of the CdTe quantum dots, whereas the fluorescence intensity of the CDs remained almost unchanged. The AMO concentration was monitored using the fluorescence intensity ratio (log(I 647 /I 465 ) 0 /(I 647 /I 465 )) to reduce interference from the testing environment. The sensor with a low detection limit of 0.15 μg/L enabled detection of the AMO concentration within 6 min. The ratiometric fluorescence sensor was used to detect AMO in spiked pork samples; it exhibited a high recovery efficiency and relative standard deviation (RSD) of 97.94-103.70% and 3.77-4.37%, respectively. The proposed highly sensitive and selective platform opens avenues for sensitive, reliable, and rapid determination of pharmaceuticals in the environment and food safety monitoring using ratiometric sensors., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Austria, part of Springer Nature.)

Objectives: The quality of amoxicillin capsules, ceftriaxone for injection, and ciprofloxacin tablets was evaluated to determine whether there is any difference in quality when comparing the country of origin. This was undertaken because it has been claimed that antibiotics manufactured in Europe are of superior quality to those originating from Africa or Asia., Methods: Samples of amoxicillin capsules, ceftriaxone for injection, and ciprofloxacin tablets were collected from three randomly selected wholesale pharmacies in each city, namely Arusha, Dar es Salaam and Mwanza, Tanzania. The collected samples of collected brands were subjected to quality control testing as per their respective pharmacopoeial monographs. Amoxil 250 mg capsules (Glaxo Wellcome, Mayenne, France), Rocephin (Roche, Switzerland) and Cipro-Denk 500 (Allphamed Pharbil Arzneimittel GmbH, Gottingen, Germany) were used as reference brands for the other generic brands of amoxicillin, ceftriaxone and ciprofloxacin, respectively., Results: A total of 31 brands (10 different brands of amoxicillin capsules, 9 of ceftriaxone sodium injections, and 12 of ciprofloxacin tablets) were collected from the targeted regions and subjected to quality control testing. All samples of collected brands complied with the requirements of their respective pharmacopoeial monographs., Conclusions: There was no significant difference in quality between brands of amoxicillin capsules, ceftriaxone for injection, and ciprofloxacin tablets manufactured in Africa and Asia against those manufactured in Europe in terms of compliance with the respective pharmacopoeial monographs., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy.)

Solar Fenton is an important and extensively used advanced oxidation process (AOP) to degrade pharmaceutical pollutants. The objective of this study was to evaluate the performance of simultaneous degradation of the mixed pollutants (amoxicillin, acetaminophen, and ciprofloxacin) for an aqueous solution using the solar Fenton process. Operating parameters such as pH, iron doses, H 2 O 2 doses, pollutant concentrations, and time were studied. From the experimental results, the ideal conditions were obtained for the removal of mixed pollutants such as pH 3, Fe 2+ 0.04 mM, H 2 O 2 4 mM, the concentration of the mixed pollutants 5 mg/L, solar radiation 400 W/m 2 , and time 10 min, respectively. The pseudo-first-order kinetics were utilized to investigate the degradation efficacy of the mixed pollutants. The result of the study indicates that the degradation efficiency was > 99% for the mixed pollutants. A maximum of 63% mineralization was observed, and hydroxyl radical scavenger effects were studied. The best optimal conditions were applied to assess the spiked wastewater (municipal wastewater (MWW) and hospital wastewater (HWW)). The highest elimination rates for AMX, ACET, and CIP were observed as 65%, 89%, and 85% for MWW and 76%, 92%, and 80% for HWW, respectively. The degraded by-products were detected by LC-ESI-MS in the water matrix (aqueous solution and spiked wastewater), and ECOSAR analysis was performed for the transformed products. The study concluded that the solar Fenton technique is promising and effective for the removal of mixed pollutants from the water matrix., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.)

Amoxicillin, a member of the penicillin family, is primarily utilized for the treatment of various bacterial infections affecting ears, nose, throat, urinary tract, and skin. Given its widespread application in medicine, agriculture, environment, and food industry, the precise and sensitive detection of amoxicillin is important. This study introduces a novel approach to developing a sensitive and selective fluorescent aptasensor relying on fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) for the specific detection of amoxicillin. The carboxyfluorescein-labeled aptamer serves as a energy donor, while MXene functions as an energy acceptor, and acting as a quencher. To achieve optimal detection efficiency, a dual optimization strategy utilizing RSM-CCD and ANN-GA was used to fine-tune experimental conditions. The fluorescence measurements revealed an expansive linear range extending from 100 to 2400 ng mL -1 , accompanied by an exceptionally low detection limit of 1.53 ng mL -1 . Additionally, it shows an excellent selectivity towards amoxicillin over other antibiotics commonly found in water matrices. The aptasensor demonstrates good stability and reproducibility; effectiveness of the aptasensor was validated by testing in real water samples. This remarkable sensitivity and broad dynamic range affirm the efficacy aptasensor in accurately detecting varying concentrations of amoxicillin in wastewater bodies., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Dual-emissive fluorescence probes were designed by integrating porphyrin into the frameworks of UiO-66 for ratiometric fluorescence sensing of amoxicillin (AMX). Porphyrin integrated UiO-66 showed dual emission in the blue and red region. AMX resulted in the quenching of blue fluorescence component, attributable to the charge neutralization and hydrogen bonds induced energy transfer. AMX was detected using (F 438 /F 654 ) as output signals. Two linear relationships were observed (from 10 to 1000 nM and 1 to 100 µM), with a limit of detection of 27 nM. The porphyrin integrated UiO-66 probe was used to detect AMX in practical samples. This work widens the road for the development of dual/multiple emissive fluorescence sensors for analytical applications, providing materials and theoretical supporting for food, environmental, and human safety., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Austria, part of Springer Nature.)

To date, there is an increased risk to public health and the environment due to the presence of pharmaceutically active compounds within drinking water supply and distribution networks. Owing to this, a direct injection-HPLC/MS-MS method was developed for the simultaneous determination of 16 active pharmaceutical compounds in tap water samples: amoxicillin, ampicillin, cephalexin, cefotaxime, cefuroxime, ciprofloxacin, clarithromycin, clindamycin, chloramphenicol, cyproterone, erythromycin, flutamide, spironolactone, sulfamethoxazole, tamoxifen, and trimethoprim. Limits of detection (LOD) ranged from 0.2 to 6.0 µg/L while quantification limits (LOQ) from 0.3 to 20 µg/L. Recovery percentages were between 70 and 125%. Total analysis time was short, with all compounds being resolved in less than 2.1 min. Of the 22 tap water samples collected and analyzed, the highest concentrations corresponded to amoxicillin (147 µg/L) and ciprofloxacin (44 µg/L). The findings could set a precedent for establishing safe levels of these compounds and increasing standards for tap water quality in this region., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Amoxicillin is a beta-lactam group of antibiotics used against bacterial infections. The growth of the antibiotic market and abuse of amoxicillin led to its accumulation in nature, especially in foods. Thus, rapid amoxicillin tests are needed to protect human health and increase food safety. In this study, a single drop, mobile electrochemical amoxicillin immunosensor was developed for the first time. The immunosensor platform is based on amoxicillin antibodies conjugated magnetic nanoparticles. A 3-Dimensional (3D) cell capable of accumulating amoxicillin molecules, which interact with antibody-conjugated magnetic nanoparticles on the electrode surface was designed and 3D-printed. A small potentiostat connected to an Android mobile phone was used to detect amoxicillin in a single-drop raw milk sample in a 3D-printed cell. Results demonstrated linearity between 0.5 and 100 µM with an LOD of 0.44 µM. Due to its rapid and portable application, the designed immunosensor shows good potential in on-site amoxicillin detection from milk samples., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The Aim of the Study: Was to determine the presence of an amoxicillin-based antibiotic in bone implant biopsies by Raman spectroscopy in an experiment., Materials and Methods: Experimental animals ( n =10, a miniature pig of the Svetlogorsk breed) were divided into 2 groups of 5 animals. Groups 1 and 2 were injected with amoxicillin 2 ml per 20 kg of body weight 30 minutes before dental implantation surgery, then group 2 was additionally injected with 1 ml per 20 kg of body weight for 5 days. Each animal has 6 implants installed. On the 1st, 3rd, 7th, 14th day, an implant-bone biopsy was removed from each animal, micro-preparations were made and Raman spectroscopy was performed to assess the peak matching of the Raman spectrum., Results: In animals of the 1st and 2nd groups, the main peak of the Raman spectrum, which is closest to the values of the antibiotic spectrum of interest to us, is located closer to 1448 cm - 1 and 1446 cm -1 , respectively. At the same time, in both observations, the peaks relate to the spectrum of bone tissue, which cannot indicate the content of an antibiotic in the drug., Conclusion: No scattering spectra corresponding to the antibiotic molecule were found in any animal from both groups, regardless of the mode of administration and dosage of amoxicillin. The detected peaks corresponded to bone tissue without an antibiotic.

Contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) such as antibiotics have become a matter of worry in aquatic environments worldwide. Their presence in the environment has been increasing due to the inability of conventional wastewater and water treatments to annihilate them. Hence, attempts have been made to remove CECs using electrochemical oxidation (EO). Present study employed the low cost, active carbon based graphite sheet electrodes as anode and cathode to oxidize and degrade Amoxicillin (AMOX)- a β-lactum thiazolidine antibiotic. Optimization studies found pH 9, 45 mA cm -2 , 81 cm 2 electrode surface area, 6 mM electrolyte concentration and 60 min treatment time to be optimal for AMOX removal. Studies with varying concentrations of AMOX (20 mg L -1 , 30 mg L -1 and 40 mg L -1 ) found that increase in concentrations of AMOX require higher current densities and treatment time for better TOC removal. High performance liquid chromatography photo diode array (HPLC-PDA) studies found 94% removal for 40 mg L -1 of AMOX at optimal conditions with 90% COD and 46% TOC removal. High resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) studies using Ultra performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole time of flight-mass spectrometry (UPLC-Q-ToF-MS) identified major degradation mechanisms to be hydroxylation, β-lactum ring cleavage, breakage of thiazolidine ring chain from the aromatic ring and piperazinyl ring formation. The final byproducts of AMOX oxidation were carboxylic acids., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Antibiotics have revolutionized modern day living with their ability to effectively treat infectious diseases in humans and animals. However, the release of antibiotic compounds into the environment has led to toxic consequences. To reduce this environmental impact, it is important to employ an inexpensive and rational technology to reduce the amount of antibiotics released into the ecosystem. This study aims to explore the potential of using a bio-electrochemical system (BES) to remove Amoxicillin (AMX) from artificially contaminated soil using a microbial consortium and pure culture isolates. Under desired conditions, including an initial AMX concentration of 150 mg/L, 5 mg/L tryptone as the nitrogen source, pH of 7, temperature of 29 °C, an applied potential of 0.8 V, and an inoculum dose of 1% w/v, the BES showed a maximum degradation of 97.9% of AMX with the microbial consortium (HP03, HP09, and HP10). High performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry was used to analyse the intermediates formed during the degradation process, and the pathway elucidated revealed complete degradation of AMX. Phytotoxicity studies and degradation efficiency against multiple antibiotics confirmed the environmental significance of the BES with microbial consortium. Overall, this study highlights the potential of BES as a cost-effective and efficient method for reducing the release of antibiotics into the environment and provides valuable insights into the mechanisms and pathways of antibiotic degradation., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The IMI project ConcePTION was launched to fill the knowledge gap of using medicines during pregnancy and lactation. To achieve this goal, several studies are being conducted, including the bioanalysis of amoxicillin in minipig plasma and milk. A high-throughput, robust and reliable liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry method was developed and validated according to FDA and EMA guidelines to determine the concentrations of amoxicillin in a large number of minipig plasma and milk samples. Chromatographic separation was achieved on a Luna® Omega Polar C18, 1.6 μm, 100 × 2.1 mm column, with a mobile phase consisting of 0.1% formic acid in water and acetonitrile. Mass spectrometry used in a positive ionization mode and the transitions m/z 366.1 → 349.2 was selected to monitor amoxicillin, while m/z 370.1 → 114.15 was selected for the stable isotope labelled internal standard. This method features a linear quantification range of 10 ng/mL - 10 μg/mL, recovery of not less than 94.1%, a single sample extraction method for both plasma and milk matrices, and an analysis runtime of 5 min., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

MPs can adsorb antibiotics to coexist and accumulate in the aquatic environment in the form of complexes, resulting in unforeseeable adverse consequences. The adsorption behavior and mechanism of three antibiotics amoxicillin (AMX), ciprofloxacin (CIP), and tetracycline (TC) by four MPs Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polystyrene (PS), polypropylene (PP), and polyethylene (PE) were studied. Results showed that the adsorption of antibiotics onto MPs follows the pseudo-second-order kinetic and the Freundlich isotherm model, indicating a multilayer chemical adsorption. Combined with FTIR, XRD, and SEM analyses, the adsorption behavior was simultaneously governed by physical processes. Additionally, the equilibrium adsorption capacity was inhibited in the research concentration range of NaCl from 10 mg/L to 10 g/L. The higher the salt concentration, the more pronounced the inhibition phenomenon was. The high (9) and low (3) pH also inhibited the adsorption of antibiotics to MPs. The humic acid (HA) concentration in the range of 0-20 mg/L generally inhibited the MPs-antibiotics adsorption, but the higher HA concentration showed less inhabitation than the lower one. The adsorption inhibition of TC on the four MPs by SA also followed the above rule. However, the adsorption inhibition of sodium alginate (SA) on AMX and CIP on the four MPs was enhanced with its concentration (0-50 mg/L)., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

This pilot study synthesized the γ-Fe 2 O 3 @SiO 2 @ZIF8-Ag nanocomposites via the hydrothermal method to study its potential use in amoxicillin degradation as a novel photocatalyst in aqueous solutions under visible light radiation. Various diagnostic methods were used to determine the morphology and functional structure of the photocatalyst, and the results confirmed its proper formation. Complete degradation of AMX was obtained at a pH of 5, catalyst dosage of 0.4 g/L, AMX concentration of 10 mg/L, and reaction time of 60 min. The efficiency of the degradation was diminished when anions were present in the reaction medium, and the order of their effect was SO 4 2-  < Cl -  < NO 3 -  < HCO 3 - . Biodegradability (BOD 5 /COD ratio) increased from 0.20 to 0.68 after 120 min of photocatalytic treatment, with a COD removal of 87.54% and a TOC removal of 74.88%. Through the experimental trapping of electrons, we found the production of reactive species, such as hydroxyl radical (•OH), superoxide (O 2 •- ), and holes (h + ), in the photocatalysis reactor and that •OH was the predominant species in AMX photodegradation. Comparative experiments emphasized that the oxidation process occurs with the adsorption of pollutants on the surface of the catalyst, and the photocatalyst has the potential to be activated by various light sources, including visible light, UV light, and sunlight, with an AMX decomposition above 88%. The synthesized particles can be recovered after five consecutive cycles with minimal reduction in the degradation rate (< 4%). γ-Fe 2 O 3 @SiO 2 @ZIF8-Ag can be considered a promising photocatalyst for use in AMX degradation due to its recyclability, easier activation by different light sources, and excellent mineralization., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.)

In this research, β-MnOOH nanoplates (NPLs) were hydrothermally produced and then identified using several spectroscopic methods. The β-MnOOH NPLs were used to catalyze the chemiluminescence (CL) reaction of NaHCO 3 -H 2 O 2 . To validate the capability of the CL reaction for pharmaceutical analysis, the CL reaction of β-MnOOH NPLs-NaHCO 3 -H 2 O 2 reaction was exploited to develop a new method of measuring antibiotics named amoxicillin (AMX) and salbutamol sulfate (SLB). This method is based on the attenuating β-MnOOH NPLs-NaHCO 3 -H 2 O 2 CL reaction by the antibiotics. Calibration curves were linear in the range 3.00 × 10 -5 to 1.00 × 10 -3  mol L -1 for AMX and in the range 1.00 × 10 -5 to 1.00 × 10 -4  mol L -1 for SLB. The limits of detections obtained using the CL method for AMX and SLB were 8.90 × 10 -6  mol L -1 and 5.60 × 10 -6  mol L -1 , respectively. The relative standard deviations for AMX and SLB, at the 5.00 × 10 -5  mol L -1 concentration, were 2.44% and 2.57% (n = 5), respectively. The study of the effect of foreign species showed that the CL method developed has the appropriate selectivity for AMX and SLB. The success of the CL method in actual samples analysis was demonstrated by accurately measuring the selected antibiotics in the pharmaceutical formulations., (© 2022 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

The presence of emerging pollutants, and specifically antibiotics, in agricultural soils has increased notably in recent decades, causing growing concern as regards potential environmental and health issues. With this in mind, the current study focuses on evaluating the toxicity exerted by three antibiotics (amoxicillin, trimethoprim, and ciprofloxacin) on the growth of soil bacterial communities, when these pollutants are present at different doses, and considered in the short, medium, and long terms (1, 8 and 42 days of incubation). Specifically, the research was carried out in 12 agricultural soils having different physicochemical characteristics and was performed by means of the leucine ( 3 H) incorporation method. In addition, changes in the structure of soil microbial communities at 8 and 42 days were studied in four of these soils, using the phospholipids of fatty acids method for this. The main results indicate that the most toxic antibiotic was amoxicillin, followed by trimethoprim and ciprofloxacin. The results also show that the toxicity of amoxicillin decreases with time, with values of Log IC 50 ranging from 0.07 ± 0.05 to 3.43 ± 0.08 for day 1, from 0.95 ± 0.07 to 3.97 ± 0.15 for day 8, and from 2.05 ± 0.03 to 3.18 ± 0.04 for day 42, during the incubation period. Regarding trimethoprim, 3 different behaviors were observed: for some soils the growth of soil bacterial communities was not affected, for a second group of soils trimethoprim toxicity showed dose-response effects that remained persistent over time, and, finally, for a third group of soils the toxicity of trimethoprim increased over time, being greater for longer incubation times (42 days). As regards ciprofloxacin, this antibiotic did not show a toxicity effect on the growth of soil bacterial communities for any of the soils or incubation times studied. Furthermore, the principal component analysis performed with the phospholipids of fatty acids results demonstrated that the microbial community structure of these agricultural soils, which persisted after 42 days of incubation, depended mainly on soil characteristics and, to a lesser extent, on the dose and type of antibiotic (amoxicillin, trimethoprim or ciprofloxacin). In addition, it was found that, in this research, the application of the three antibiotics to soils usually favored the presence of fungi and Gram-positive bacteria., (Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Cross-contamination between medicated and non-medicated feed can occur during production, processing, transport or storage of animal feed. This may lead to the presence of low concentrations of antibiotics in supposedly drug-free feed for food production animals, which potentially could also harm consumers due to residues. In addition, consumption of sub-therapeutic concentrations of antibiotics may increase the risk of emergence of resistant bacteria. In this study, LC-MS/MS methods were developed to quantify four antibiotics (sulfadimethoxine, oxytetracycline, trimethoprim and amoxicillin) in several pig matrices, i.e. plasma, muscle, liver, kidneys and faeces. All methods were validated using the accuracy profile, except for amoxicillin in faeces, for which extraction could not be optimised for low concentrations. These methods were then applied as part of an animal study during which several pigs received contaminated feed at a concentration corresponding to 2% of therapeutic dose, in order to evaluate the risk of the presence of residues in animal faeces and tissues. The results showed that sulfadimethoxine is well absorbed and accumulates in the muscle, kidneys and liver, where concentrations were higher than the maximum residue limits (MRLs) authorised in EU legislation. Conversely, oxytetracycline was mostly found in faeces as its oral absorption is very low. Trimethoprim concentrations were slightly higher than the tolerated MRL in the kidneys, but they were below this level in the other tissues. Finally, amoxicillin concentrations remained below the lower limit of quantification of the methods in all matrices.

Frequent human activities in estuary areas lead to the release of a large number of antibiotics, which poses a great threat to human health. However, there are very limited studies about the influence of the special natural phenomena on the occurrence and migration of antibiotics in the environment. In this study, we simulated the migration and transformation of six typical antibiotics, including oxytetracycline (OTC), tetracycline (TC), norfloxacin (NOR), ofloxacin (OFX), erythromycin (ETM), and amoxicillin (AMOX), in the environmental media from 2011 to 2019 in the Yangtze River Estuary, by using the level III multi-media fugacity model combined with the factor of tides. The simulation results showed that the most antibiotics mainly existed in soil and sediment while erythromycin were found mainly in water. The concentrations of antibiotics in air, freshwater, seawater, groundwater, sediment, and soil were 10 -23 -10 -25 , 0.1-12 ng/L, 0.02-7 ng/L, 0.02-16 ng/L, 0.1-13 ng/g, and 0.1-15 ng/g respectively. Sensitivity analysis showed that the degradation rate (K m ) and the soil-to-water runoff coefficient (K l ) were important model parameters, indicating that hydrodynamic conditions had a significant impact on the migration of antibiotics in various environmental phases in estuarine areas. Tide can enhance the exchange between water bodies and cause the transformation of the antibiotics from freshwater to seawater and groundwater, which improved the accuracy of the model, especially the seawater and soil phase. Risk assessments showed that amoxicillin, erythromycin, ofloxacin, and norfloxacin posed a threat to the estuarine environment, but the current source of drinking water did not affect human health. Our findings suggested that, when one would like to exam the occurrence and migration of antibiotics in environment, more consideration should be given to the natural phenomena, in addition to human activities and the nature of antibiotics., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

A promising hierarchical nanocomposite of MIL-53(Al)/ZnO was synthesized as a visible-light-driven photocatalyst to investigate the degradation of amoxicillin (AMX). MIL-53(Al)/ZnO ultrafine nanoparticles were obtained by preparing Zn-free MIL-53Al and employing it as a reactive template under hydrothermal and chemical conditions. The synthesized nanocomposite (MIL-53(Al)/ZnO) has a low content of Al > 1.5% with significantly different characterizations of the parent compounds elucidated by various analyses such as SEM, TEM, XRD, EDX, and UV-Vis. The effect of operational parameters (catalyst dose (0.2-1.0 g/L), solution pH (3-11), and initial AMX concentration (10-90 mg/L)) on the AMX removal efficiency was studied and optimized by the response surface methodology. A reasonable goodness-of-fit between the expected and experimental values was confirmed with correlation coefficient (R 2 ) equal to 0.96. Under the optimal values, i.e., initial AMX concentration = 10 mg/L, solution pH ~ 4.5, and catalyst dose = 1.0 g/L, 100% AMX removal was achieved after reaction time = 60 min. The degradation mechanism and oxidation pathway were vigorously examined. The AMX degradation ratios slightly decreased after five consecutive cycles (from 78.19 to 62.05%), revealing the high reusability of MIL-53(Al)/ZnO. The AMX removal ratio was improved with enhancers in order ([Formula: see text]> H 2 O 2  > S 2 O 8 -2 ). The results proved that 94.12 and 98.23% reduction of COD were obtained after 60 and 75 min, respectively. The amortization and operating costs were estimated at 3.3 $/m 3 for a large-scale photocatalytic system., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Framed in the problem of emerging pollutants, in this work we introduce a novel procedure for the total removal of amoxicillin from water samples using magnetic nanoparticles functionalized with nanometric silver (Fe 3 O 4 @AgNPs). Experimental conditions such as pH, contact time, temperature, as well as adsorbate and adsorbent doses have been studied to achieve the total adsorption for different concentrations of amoxicillin in water. Particularly, for concentrations 10 and 100 mg L -1 , a maximum removal efficiency of 100% was reached at room temperature and pH = 7 after 15 min of contact time between adsorbent and water samples under gentle shaking. The doses of adsorbent employed to remove 10 and 100 mg L -1 of amoxicillin were 100 and 500 μL, respectively. Characterization of the adsorbent surfaces was performed by Scanning and Transmission Electron Microscopy, Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy, BET analysis and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. Recycling studies were carried out employing 500 μL of NaOH solution 1 M during 15 min in order to explore desorption and reuse of the adsorbent, showing that Fe 3 O 4 @AgNPs remains unaltered and can be used for two more additionally adsorption cycles, exhibiting 93% adsorption efficiency after the third regeneration. The characterization of equilibrium isotherms and thermodynamics reveal a Langmuir-type endothermic chemisorption., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

A total of 450 samples comprising 150 each of muscles, livers and kidneys were collected from 150 sheep carcasses in Kuwait and tested by both Rapid Premi®Test kits for rapid detection of antimicrobial-positive samples, and the High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) for residual determination of amoxicillin, tetracycline, oxytetracycline, and tylosin. Premi test revealed that 82%, 64% and 100% of the muscle, liver and kidney samples examined, respectively were positive for antimicrobials. HPLC analysis revealed mean concentrations (µg/kg) of 45.26, 148.17, 103.18, and 71.80 for amoxicillin, oxytetracycline, tetracycline, and tylosin respectively in muscles; 64.43, 263.15, 177.04, and 112.94, respectively in livers; and 53.12, 368.21, 196.40, and 138.63, respectively in kidneys. Although many samples exceeded the maximum residue limit (MRL) of Codex Alimentarius, the assessment of dietary exposure to the antimicrobials tested through consumption of sheep meat and organs did not constitute any health hazards in the different age groups of Kuwaiti population., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The health risk of antibiotic-resistant genes (ARGs) has been a global concern, while the report on occurrence and prevalence of ARGs in coastal zone is relatively scarce. This study investigated typical ARGs in soil and sediment in coastal line of eastern China and assessed its relationship with antibiotics and heavy metals as well as microbial community. Results showed that eight ARGs were all detected in the samples, and β-lactam resistance gene blaTEM reached the highest absolute abundance (6.28 × 10 7  ~ 6.48 × 10 8 copies/g) and relative abundance (2.3 × 10 -2 copies/16S rRNA) among samples. Amoxicillin and tetracycline were most frequently detected with the average concentration of 2.28 μg/kg and 3.48 μg/kg, respectively. Cr and Zn were found to be most abundant heavy metals with average value of 82.1 and 59.1 mg/kg, respectively. Proteobacteria, Campilobacterota, Bacteroidota, and Firmicutes were dominant phyla in most samples, while bacterial community varied significantly among samples. Redundancy analyses (RDA) showed that microbial community and antibiotics (amoxicillin and tetracycline) were driving factors of ARGs distribution, while heavy metals were not significantly correlated with ARGs. This study is helpful to understand the fate of ARGs in coastal zone., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.)

Antibiotics play a role in preventing and treating infectious diseases and also contribute to other health risks for humans. With the overuse of antibiotics, they are widely distributed in the environment. Long-term exposure to multiple antibiotics may occur in humans through medication and dietary intake. Therefore, it is critical to estimate daily intake and health risk of antibiotics based on urinary biomonitoring. This review compares the strengths and weaknesses of current analytical methods to determine antibiotics in urine samples, discusses the urinary concentration profiles and hazard quotients of individual antibiotics, and overviews correlations of antibiotic exposure with the risk of diseases. Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry is most applied to simultaneously determine multiple types of antibiotics at trace levels. Solid-phase extraction with a hydrophilic-lipophilic balance adsorbent is commonly used to extract antibiotics in urine samples. Fifteen major antibiotics with relatively higher detection frequencies and concentrations include sulfaclozine, trimethoprim, erythromycin, azithromycin, penicillin V, amoxicillin, oxytetracycline, chlortetracycline, tetracycline, doxycycline, ofloxacin, enrofloxacin, ciprofloxacin, norfloxacin, and florfenicol. Humans can be easily at microbiological effect-based risk induced by florfenicol, ciprofloxacin, azithromycin, and amoxicillin. Positive associations were observed between specific antibiotic exposure and obesity, allergic diseases, and mental disorders. Overall, the accessible, automated, and environmentally friendly methods are prospected for simultaneous determinations of antibiotics at trace level in urine. To estimate human exposure to antibiotics more accurately, knowledge gaps need to be filled up, including the transformation between parent and metabolic antibiotics, urinary excretion proportions of antibiotics at low-dose exposure and pharmacokinetic data of antibiotics in humans, and the repeated sampling over a long period in future research is needed. Longitudinal studies about antibiotic exposure and the risk of diseases in different developmental windows as well as in-depth research on the pathogenic mechanism of long-term, low-dose, and joint antibiotic exposure are warranted., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Amoxicillin (AMX), one of the micro-amount hazardous pollutants, was frequently detected in environments, and of great risks to environments and human health. Microbial degradation is a promising method to eliminate pollutants. In this study, an efficient AMX-degrading strain, Ads-6, was isolated and characterized. Strain Ads-6, belonging to the genus Bosea, was also able to grow on AMX as the sole carbon and nitrogen source, with a removal of ~60% TOC. Ads-6 exhibited strong AMX-degrading ability at initial concentrations of 0.5-2 mM and pH 6-8. Addition of yeast extract could significantly enhance its degrading ability. Many degradation intermediates were identified by HPLC-MS, including new ones such as two phosphorylated products which were firstly defined in AMX degradation. A new AMX degradation pathway was proposed accordingly. Moreover, the results of comparative transcriptomes and proteomes revealed that β-lactamase, L, D-transpeptidase or its homologous enzymes were responsible for the initial degradation of AMX. Protocatechuate branch of the beta-ketoadipate pathway was confirmed as the downstream degradation pathway. These results in the study suggested that Ads-6 is great potential in biodegradation of antibiotics as well as in the bioremediation of contaminated environments., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no competing interests., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

In this work, Mn-Co/GAC particle electrode was prepared by loading Mn and Co as catalysts on granular activated carbon (GAC) and used in a three-dimensional (3D) electrochemical system for mineralization of amoxicillin wastewater. Observation results by SEM, EDS and XRD confirmed that Mn and Co catalysts were successfully loaded onto GAC. The electrochemical properties were measured using an electrochemical workstation. Mn-Co/GAC had a much higher oxygen evolution potential (1.46V) than GAC (1.1V), which demonstrated that it could effectively reduce the oxygen evolution side reaction. In addition, Mn-Co/GAC had an electrochemically active surface area 1.34 times that of GAC and a much smaller mass transfer resistance than GAC, which could provide favorable conditions for the degradation of pollutants. The investigation of the influences of single operating parameters on total organic carbon (TOC) removal rate and electrical energy consumption (EEC) indicated that current density and treatment time had the greatest effect. In order to maximize TOC removal rate and minimize EEC, optimization of operating parameters was also carried out using response surface method in combination with central composite design. The optimal operating parameters were determined as current density of 5.68 mA/cm 2 , electrolyte concentration of 0.127M, particle electrode dosage of 31.14g and treatment time of 120min. Under this optimum operating condition, TOC removal rate of 85.24% and amoxicillin removal rate of 100% could be achieved with a low EEC of 0.073 kWh/g TOC. In addition, TOC removal rate and EEC were significantly improved compared to the use of bare GAC as particle electrode under the same operating conditions, demonstrating the excellent electrocatalytic ability of the new particle electrode Mn-Co/GAC. A possible mechanism of enhanced amoxicillin and TOC removal was also recommended. In summary, the 3D electrochemical method using Mn-Co/GAC particle electrodes is a suitable choice for amoxicillin wastewater treatment., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

In the management of cystic fibrosis, treatments against Staphylococcus aureus and Haemophilus influenzae such as amoxicillin or cotrimoxazole have to be prescribed and the antibiotherapy's efficacy may be linked to the concentration that reaches the infected site. As cystic fibrosis patients present disturbed pharmacokinetics parameters, drug monitoring would be relevant to assess the lung distribution of antibiotics and to optimize dosing regimens. In this context, the aim of the study was to develop and validate HPLC-based methods for the determination of both antibiotics in bronchial sputum from cystic fibrosis patients, in order to assess the distribution of the drugs into the lungs. Plasma proteins were precipitated by acetonitrile and amoxicillin concentrations in sputum were determined by HPLC coupled with tandem-mass spectrometry. Following liquid extraction with ethyl acetate, cotrimoxazole was quantified by HPLC using ultraviolet detection. Both methods were rapid, specific, accurate and reproducible. The method was applied to patient samples. In three treated patients, concentrations of amoxicillin in sputum were similar and below the lower limit of quantification (0.1 μg/g) and in six patients, sputum concentrations up to 11.1 and 6.4 μg/g were measured for sulfamethoxazole and trimethoprim, respectively., (© 2021 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)

In this work, for the first time, a new magnetic cadmium-based MOFs (Fe 3 O 4 @Cd-MOF) was successfully synthesized in a green way and then modified with chitosan (CS) in the microsphere form (Fe 3 O 4 @Cd-MOF@CS). The obtained materials were fully characterized by several techniques. In the following, the efficiency of Fe 3 O 4 @Cd-MOF@CS was explored for the removal of amoxicillin (AMX). The outcome of the adsorption study showed that the removal efficiency is affected by CS and reaches its optimum at pH 8 and contact time of 240 min. Under optimized conditions, over 75% of AMX was removed. The kinetic and the isotherm of the adsorption were fit with the pseudo-second-order model and the Langmuir adsorption isotherm respectively. Eventually, the maximum adsorption capacity was obtained ~103.09 mg/g. Interestingly, these findings convince that the newly prepared Fe 3 O 4 @Cd-MOF@CS could be proposed as a promising magnetically separable adsorbent for antibiotic contaminants removal from the aqueous solution., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The development of new heterogeneous Cu-based solid catalysts for hydroxyl radical (∙OH) generation plays a crucial role in degradation of pollutants at neutral pH circumstance. In this work, a Cu-doped graphitic carbon nitride (g-C 3 N 4 ) complex was synthesized in one-step pyrolysis process using copper chloride dihydrate and dicyandiamide as precursors. The results reveal that after Cu doping, the bulk structure of g-C 3 N 4 was destroyed with fragmentary morphology formation. Besides, Cu 0 and Cu + were successfully embedded in g-C 3 N 4 sheet. Moreover, amoxicillin (AMX) removal by heterogeneous electro-Fenton process was performed to evaluate the catalytic activity of the Cu-doped g-C 3 N 4 . 99.1% AMX removal efficiency was obtained after 60 min electrolysis under neutral pH condition when the current density was 12 mA cm 2 and the catalyst dosage was 0.3 g L -1 . Both Cu 0 and Cu + were stably retained in the Cu-doped g-C 3 N 4 catalyst and AMX removal efficiency reached 91.1%, even after 5 cycles, manifesting the remarkable stability of Cu-doped g-C 3 N 4 . Also, Cu-doped g-C 3 N 4 possessed excellent catalytic activities for AMX removal in various waterbodies. According to the catalytic mechanism analysis, the ∙OH was proved to be the primary reactive species for AMX removal in heterogeneous electro-Fenton process. Based on the identification of sixteen different intermediate products, the possible degradation pathways were proposed. This work provides a simple method to synthesize a Cu-based solid catalyst containing stable Cu 0 and Cu  +  for degradation of pollutants in wastewater., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Amoxicillin (AMX) is among the most successful antibiotics used for human therapy. It is used extensively to prevent or treat bacterial infections in humans and animals. However, the widespread distribution and excess utilization of AMX can be an environmental and health risk due to the hazardous potential associated to its pharmaceutical industries effluents. Besides, their extensive use in food animal production may result in some undesirable residues in food, e.g. meat, eggs and milk. Consequently, at high enough concentrations in biological fluids, AMX may be responsible of various diseases such as nausea, vomiting, rashes, and antibiotic-associated colitis. For this reason, the detection and quantification of amoxicillin in pharmaceuticals, biological fluids, environmental samples and foodstuffs require new electroanalytical techniques with sensitive and rapid measurement abilities. This review discusses recent advances in the development of electrochemical sensors and bio-sensors for AMX analysis in complex matrices such as pharmaceuticals, biological fluids, environmental water and foodstuffs. The main electrochemical sensors used are based on chemically modified electrodes involving carbon materials and nanomaterials, nanoparticles, polymers and biological recognition molecules., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declared that there is no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The minimum set of parameters that can be used to assess the adsorption capacity of activated carbon (AC) produced from termite bio-waste was determined. Three types of AC were prepared: AC600 at 600 °C, MAC600 at the same temperature and impregnated with FeCl 3 , and AC800 at 800 °C. The influence of the solution pH on the adsorption, adsorption kinetics, isotherms and thermodynamic parameters was considered to characterize the amoxicillin (AMX) adsorption process. The AC materials had surface areas (m 2  g -1 ) of approximately 248.8 for AC600, 501.6 for AC800 and 269.5 for MAC600, with point of zero charge (pH PZC ) values of 8.3, 7.5 and 1.7, respectively. A time period of 30 min was chosen for the adsorption kinetics, which was best represented by the pseudo-first-order model for AC600, the intraparticle diffusion model for AC800 and the pseudo-second-order model for MAC600. Regarding the isotherms, a maximum adsorption of 23.4 mg g -1 was found for AC800. In general, the thermodynamic parameters demonstrated a non-spontaneous process. It seems that the medium conditions, the adsorbate and adsorbent characteristics, and the Gibbs free energy are the most important parameters to be considered in a preliminary assessment of the adsorption efficiency of specific adsorbent/adsorbate pairs.

An alternative method of electrochemical oxidation was employed to degrade persistent compounds in the form of antibiotics using strong oxidizing agents such as hydroxyl ions. A 24 factorial design was employed to check the effect of four factors namely pH, current density, electrolysis time and electrolyte concentration set at their high (+) and low (-) levels on the antibiotics (amoxicillin, ciprofloxacin and erythromycin) degradation in water. The response was obtained in the form of COD (chemical oxygen demand) removal. A prediction model was developed to predict the values of COD removal. Later the main effect, contribution and interactions were studied with Design Expert Software 7.0. About 89.5% COD removal was obtained when pH and time were set at their high level and the other two factors at their low level. It was determined that the pH when set at high level (pH 9) had the most effect (24.68) and contribution (43.6) in the degradation process and hence the removal of COD. This technology of electrochemical oxidation can be employed in industries to efficiently remove pharmaceuticals, paints, dyes and other organic compounds.

In this study, surface plasmon resonance (SPR) and quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) sensors were prepared for the detection of amoxicillin from the commercial and local chicken eggs by using molecular imprinting technique. Amoxicillin imprinted poly(hydroxyethyl methacrylate-methacrylic acid) polymeric film was synthesized onto the surface of the SPR and QCM chips by ultra violet polymerization to determine lower concentrations of amoxicillin. Ellipsometry, contact angle analysis, and atomic force microscopy measurements were used for the surface morphology of the polymeric film layer. The ellipsometric thickness of AMOX imprinted and nonimprinted SPR and QCM chip surfaces were measured as 35 ± 0.9 nm, 32.89 ± 1.9 nm, 30 ± 0.6 nm, and 28 ± 0.22 nm, respectively. Contact angles of bare gold surfaces, AMOX imprinted SPR and QCM chip surfaces were measured to be as 82.3° ± 0.15, 79.2° ± 0.14, 75.01° ± 1.07, and 69.11° ± 0.89, respectively. The range of linearity was measured as 0.1 to 10 ng/mL for amoxicillin imprinted SPR and QCM sensors. The maximum residue limit of AMOX in eggs is at 10 µg/kg in accordance with the "Positive List System for Agricultural Chemical Residues in Foods." The response time for the test, including adsorption, desorption, and regeneration, was approximately 45 min. The limit of detections for SPR and QCM sensors were found to be 0.0005 and 0.0023 ng/mL, respectively. The reusabilities of amoxicillin imprinted SPR and QCM sensors were observed by the equilibration-binding-regeneration. Validation studies of the AMOX imprinted SPR and QCM sensors were performed by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry., (© 2020 Institute of Food Technologists®.)

We investigated individual and combined effects of environmentally representative concentrations of amoxicillin (AMX; 2 μg l -1 ), enrofloxacin (ENR; 2 μg l -1 ), and oxytetracycline (OXY; 1 μg l -1 ) on the aquatic macrophyte Lemna minor. While the concentrations of AMX and ENR tested were not toxic, OXY decreased plant growth and cell division. OXY induced hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) accumulation and related oxidative stress through its interference with the activities of mitochondria electron transport chain enzymes, although those deleterious effects could be ameliorated by the presence of AMX and/or ENR, which prevented the overaccumulation of ROS by increasing catalase enzyme activity. L. minor plants accumulated significant quantities of AMX, ENR and OXY from the media, although competitive uptakes were observed when plants were submitted to binary or tertiary mixtures of those antibiotics. Our results therefore indicate L. minor as a candidate for phytoremediation of service waters contaminated by AMX, ENR, and/or OXY., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

This article presents the results of transferring a high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) procedure for the assay of amoxicillin and potassium clavulanate in tablets to the ultra-performed liquid chromatography (UPLC) conditions. Since the State Pharmacopoeia of Ukraine (SPhU) does not contain the monograph for the simultaneous analysis of amoxicillin and clavulanic acid, the British Pharmacopoeia procedure was used. Parameters of the procedure were optimized to fit the UPLC and to make a better performance. Transfer of the method to the UPLC conditions allowed to shorten the run time from 15 min to 7.5 min, which makes the process less time-consuming and more cost-effective. The upgraded procedure was further validated. Validation of both methods was performed in terms of linearity, precision, accuracy, specificity and stability. HPLC method was verified to later implementation into the SPhUs monograph. Afterwards, the methods were compared in terms of their impact on the environment using the eco-scale that included hazards of the solution, the amount of produced wastes, the impact on environmental and laboratory staff, etc. Both methods appeared to be eco-friendly with a moderate advantage of UPLC method. Moreover, the statistical comparison was performed using Passing Bablok regression method. It showed that both methods are statistically comparable.

The trace amount of antibiotics in water can be enriched in the human body through the food chain, leading to extremely harmful effects on people's health. Therefore, it is urgent to develop new methods to detect trace pollutants in various aquatic phase. An analytical method utilizing the synergistic effect between the sensing strategy and catalytic material with high electron transfer capacity can be used to detect trace antibiotics. In this paper, an ultrasensitive impedimetric aptasensor was fabricated by the synergy between functionalized materials (TiO 2 -g-C 3 N 4 ) and gold nanoparticles (Au NPs). Due to the formation of the 'Au-S' bond between the thiol-aptamer and Au NPs, amoxicillin and the aptamer can be specifically recognized on the modified glassy carbon electrode (GCE), and the impedance signal increased rapidly. Meanwhile, the Box-Behnken Design (BBD) strategy was used to reduce the random error of the experiment, so that the prepared aptasensor has the highest sensitivity to the detection of amoxicillin. Under optimized conditions, the sensor successfully achieved the detection of amoxicillin in the ultra-low detection range (0.5-3 nM) and reached the ultra-low detection limit (0.2 nM). The detection strategy has good selectivity, reproducibility, and stability, and thus has good potential to detect amoxicillin in actual wastewater., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2020. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

New thin BiVO 4 film using facile water‒based electrophoretic deposition process was synthesized on the webbed stainless steel surface. This work can be considered as a green method owing to use of safe, non-flammable, and cheap media of water as solvent of electrophoretic deposition. Structural and morphological properties of the resultant film were studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Elemental and Mapping analyses (EDS), Optical Microscopy, Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) analysis. The moderate diameter size of nanorods of the deposited BiVO 4 was measured in the range of 100 to 150 nm. The prepared three layered thin film was shown permanent photocatalytic degradation rate of Amoxicillin pharmaceutical pollution as high as 97.45 % after 90 min. It can be suggested that BiVO 4 nanorods have the high ability of hole-electron separation and electron transferring through the alternative routes. Indeed, the prepared thin films of BiVO4 having nanoroad morphology possess great potential for light harvesting. Moreover, webbed stainless steel with electron acceptor character leads to severe separation of photogenerated hole‒electron. The mechanistic study of the scavenging reaction introduced the hydroxyl radicals as the main specie in the photocatalytic process. It is interesting that obtained results of photocatalytic process of this BVO film within different pollutants (dyes, phenol, and drugs) demonstrated the high efficiency and mineralization rate., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background Probiotics are live microbial organisms that provide benefit to the host while co-habitating in the gastrointestinal tract. Probiotics are safe, available over the counter, and have clinical benefit by reducing the number of antibiotic-associated diarrhea days. Prescriptions from providers and direct consumer demand of probiotics appear to be on the rise. Several recent animal studies have demonstrated that probiotics may have significant effect on absorption of co-administered drugs. However, to date, most probiotic-drug interaction studies in animal models have been limited to bacterial probiotics and nonantibiotic drugs. Methods We performed a traditional pharmacokinetic mouse study examining the interactions between a common commercially available yeast probiotic, Saccharomyces boulardii CNCM I-745 (Florastor®) and an orally administered amoxicillin. Results We showed that there were no significant differences in pharmacokinetic parameters (half-life, area under the curve, peak concentrations, time to reach maximum concentration, elimination rate constant) of amoxicillin between the probiotic treated and untreated control groups. Conclusions Altogether, our findings suggest that coadministration or concurrent use of S. boulardii probiotic and amoxicillin would not likely alter the efficacy of amoxicillin therapy.

Hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) electrogenerated via two-electron oxygen reduction reaction at cathode plays an important role in electrochemical advanced oxidation processes for organic pollutants removal from wastewater. Herein, multi-walled carbon nanotubes and carbon black co-modified graphite felt electrode (MWCNTs-CB/GF) was prepared as an efficient cathode for H 2 O 2 electrogeneration and amoxicillin removal by anodic oxidation with hydrogen peroxide (AO-H 2 O 2 ) and electro-Fenton (EF) under mild pH condition. Besides, the physicochemical and electrochemical properties of MWCNTs-CB/GF were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, N 2 adsorption and desorption experiment, contact angle measurement, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and linear sweep voltammetry. Compared with GF, MWCNTs-CB/GF showed a higher H 2 O 2 generation of 309.0 mg L -1 with a current efficiency of 60.9% (after 120 min) and more effective amoxicillin removal efficiencies of 97.5% (after 120 min) and 98.7% (after 30 min) in AO-H 2 O 2 and EF (with 0.5 mM Fe 2+ ) processes, under the condition of current density 12 mA cm -2 and initial pH 5.5. Meanwhile, the TOC removal efficiency was 45.2% during EF process after 120 min. Anodic oxidation, H 2 O 2 oxidation, and methanol capture indicated that ∙OH generated via electro-activation reaction at MWCNTs-CB/GF and Fenton reaction in solution played the dominant role in amoxicillin removal. Moreover, the TOC removal was associated with ∙OH generated during Fenton reaction in the solution. The major intermediates of AMX degradation by EF process were identified using LC-MS and the possible degradation pathways were proposed containing of β-lactam ring opening, hydroxylation reaction, decarboxylation reaction, methyl groups in the thiazolidine ring oxidation reaction, bond cleavage, and rearrangement processes. All of the above results proved that MWCNTs-CB/GF was an excellent cathode for AMX degradation under mild pH condition.

A rapid, simple and sensitive spectrophotometric method for the determination of amoxicillin (AM) is described. The method is based on the previous sulphanilamide (SA) and sulphathiazole (STZ) diazotization in the medium of 0.6-0.7 M hydrochloric acid and their subsequent interaction with amoxicillin at pH = 10.5 with formation of yellow-colored azo compouds. Effective molar absorptivities at the absorbance maxima at 445 nm (SA) and 448 nm (STZ) for azo compounds were (1.74 ± 0,06)∆104 L×mol-1×cm-1 and (1.97 ± 0,05)∆104 L×mol-1×cm-1, respectively. Stoichiometric ratios of the components of azo compounds were determined using continuous variations method. Based on the optimum reaction conditions, new methods were developed. These methods allow to determine the amoxicillin in concentration range 1.3-32.9 mg×mL-1 with sulphanilamide and 0.7-27.4 mg×mL-1 with sulphathiazole. The methods were successfully validated for amoxicillin determination in tablets "Amoxil".

Background: In developing countries, brand-generic substitution is not based on validated scientific evidence that confirm the therapeutic equivalence of the generic to the originator. Rather, decisions are made based on the availability of generic medications. Substitution by inappropriate preparations applies to antibiotics, which may increase the risk of resistance in case of underdosing. This analytical study aims to dose and assess for the accuracy of labeling three oral antibiotic preparations, namely ciprofloxacin hydrochloride, amoxicillin trihydrate and amoxicillin trihydrate-clavulanate potassium, the active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) found in brand and generic tablets available on the Lebanese market., Methods: One brand and 4 generics of ciprofloxacin tablets, 3 generic amoxicillin tablets, and 1 brand and 4 generics of amoxicillin-clavulanic acid medications, were quantified, taking 2 batches of each. According to the United States Pharmacopeia (USP) guidelines, ultra-high pressure liquid chromatography was used to measure the APIs content within tablets. The USP required assay limit of the API was taken as the main comparison criteria., Results: Out of the 5 ciprofloxacin medications tested, all 5 were out of the 2% required range, thus being substandard. For amoxicillin, all 3 medications were within the 20% range. As for amoxicillin-clavulanic acid medications, 4 out of 5 medications met the 30% required range of clavulanic acid and one exceeded the claimed amount of clavulanic acid, while all 5 met the assay limit for amoxicillin., Conclusion: These findings raise safety and efficacy concerns, providing solid grounds for potential correlations of antibiotic resistance/substandard antibiotics.

Rationale: Previously, we have been able to outpace bacterial mutation by replacing increasingly ineffective antibiotics with new agents. However, with the discovery of new antibiotics diminishing, optimising the administration of existing broad-spectrum antibiotics such as co-amoxiclav has become a necessity., Methods: A stability indicating HPLC method was developed and validated in compliance with International Council for Harmonisation (ICH) guidelines. Stability of co-amoxiclav at clinical concentration was evaluated at three temperatures (4°C, ambient (23-25°C) and 37°C) in three diluents (water for injection (WFI), 0.9% w/v NaCl and Ringer's solution). To establish whether there were significant differences at the level of both diluent and temperature, results were analysed using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) to assess differences between the attained slopes of regression., Results: Data obtained indicated co-amoxiclav stability superior to that previously proposed making it suitable for extended infusion therapy. The degradation of amoxicillin appeared to follow a linear trend, with the rate of degradation elevated at higher temperatures, demonstrated by the magnitude of the regression slopes in these conditions. Analysis of regression slopes via ANCOVA demonstrated that diluent and temperature both significantly affected co-amoxiclav stability. Amoxicillin retained 90% of its initial concentration for 7.8 to 10 hrs when stored at 4°C, 5.9 to 8.8 hrs at ambient and 3.5 to 4.5 hrs when incubated at 37°C., Conclusion: Co-amoxiclav is suitable for administration via prolonged infusion. Findings from this study aid in ameliorating current dosing regimens to optimise antibiotic efficacy. Other valuable applications conferred from these findings include the ability to pre-prepare solutions for use in bolus administration, minimising preparation time and workload., Competing Interests: The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work., (© 2020 Fawaz et al.)

The impact of electrolytes on the adsorption of emerging pollutants: pharmaceuticals onto layered materials: a raw clay mineral and its nonionic and cationic organoclay derivatives was studied. The selected pharmaceuticals: amoxicillin, norfloxacin, sulfamethoxazole, metoprolol, carbamazepine, and trimethoprim show different electric charges: zwitterionic, anionic, cationic and neutral and hydrophobic character (different LogP). Without any salts, the set of complementary data obtained by UV and infrared spectroscopies, X-ray diffraction points out the importance of the electric charge which represents a key parameter in both the spontaneity and feasibility of the adsorption. In contrast, the hydrophobicity of the analytes plays a minor role but determines the magnitude of the adsorbed amount of pharmaceuticals onto organoclays. With a dual hydrophilic and hydrophobic behavior, nonionic organoclay appears to be the most polyvalent material for the removal of the pharmaceuticals. In the presence of electrolytes (NaCl at a concentration of 1 × 10 -2  mol L -1 ), both nonionic and cationic organoclays show a decrease of their efficiencies, whereas the adsorption is particularly enhanced for Na-Mt except for the cationic species (trimethoprim and metoprolol). Thus, in realistic experimental conditions close to those of natural effluents, raw clay mineral appears as the most appropriate sorbent for the studied pharmaceuticals while it raises the question of the usefulness of organoclays in water remediation strategy., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

A new electrochemical device based on a combination of nanomaterials such as Printex 6L Carbon and cadmium telluride quantum dots within a poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate film was developed for sensitive determination of amoxicillin. The morphological, structural and electrochemical characteristics of the nanostructured material were evaluated using X-ray diffraction, confocal microscopy, transmission electron microscopy and voltammetric techniques. The synergy between these materials increased the electrochemical activity, the electron transfer rate and the electrode surface area, leading to a high magnitude of the anodic peak current for the determination of amoxicillin. The electrochemical determination of the antibiotic was carried out using square-wave voltammetry. Under the optimised experimental conditions, the proposed sensor showed high sensitivity, repeatability and stability to amoxicillin determination, with an analytical curve in the amoxicillin concentration range from 0.90 to 69 μmol L -1 , and a low detection limit of 50 nmol L -1 . No significant interference in the electrochemical signal of amoxicillin was observed from potential biological interferences and drugs widely used, such as uric acid, paracetamol, urea, ascorbic acid and caffeine. It was demonstrated that without any sample pre-treatment and using a simple measurement device, the sensor could be an alternative method for not only the analysis of pharmaceutical products (commercial tablets) and clinical samples (urine), but also to examine food quality (milk samples)., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Pharmaceutical active compounds (PhACs) have been detected at significant concentrations in various natural and artificial aquatic environments. In this study, electro membrane bioreactor (eMBR) technology was used to treat simulated municipal wastewater containing widely-used pharmaceuticals namely amoxicillin (AMX), diclofenac (DCF) and carbamazepine (CBZ). The effects of varying current density on the removal of PhACs (AMX, DCF and CBZ) and conventional pollutants (chemical oxygen demand (COD), dissolved organic carbon (DOC), humic substances, ammonia nitrogen (NH 4 -N), nitrate nitrogen (NO 3 -N) and orthophosphate (PO 4 -P) species) were examined. High COD and DOC removal efficiencies (~100%) were obtained in all the experimental runs regardless of applied current density. In contrast, enhanced removal efficiencies for AMX, DCF and CBZ were achieved at high current densities. Membrane fouling rate in eMBR with respect to conventional MBR was reduced by 24, 44 and 45% at current densities of 0.3, 0.5 and 1.15 mA/cm 2 , respectively. The mechanism for pharmaceutical removal in this study proceeded by: (1) charge neutralization between negatively-charged pharmaceutical compounds and positive electro-generated aluminium coagulants to form larger particles and (2) size exclusion by membrane filtration., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

This work investigated the electrochemical degradation of amoxicillin (AMX) in aqueous solution with Cu-PbO 2 electrode. The main influence factors on the degradation of AMX, such as Na 2 SO 4 concentration, initial AMX concentration, current density and initial pH value, were analyzed in detail. Under the optimal conditions, the removal rates of AMX and chemical oxygen demand (COD) reached 99.4% and 46.3% after 150 min treatment. The results indicated that the electrochemical degradation of AMX fitted pseudo-first-order reaction kinetics. Compared with undoped PbO 2 electrode, Cu-PbO 2 electrode had a smaller crystal size, more proportion of hydroxyl oxygen species, greater AMX and chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal efficiency, higher average current efficiency (ACE) and lower electrical efficiency per log order (EE/O). Electrochemical oxidation using Cu-PbO 2 electrodes was an effective way to eliminate amoxicillin in aqueous solution. Moreover, a possible degradation pathway including ring open and mineralization was proposed by intermediate products determined by GC-MS method. This paper could provide basic data and technique reference for the amoxicillin wastewater pollution control., (Copyright © 2019. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Increasing degradation of amoxicillin in water by low-cost advanced functional activated carbon-based materials derived from bagasse is an effective and economic way to remove the antibiotic residue pollutant and for high-valued utilization and transformation of plant wastes. In this work, bagasse was pyrolyzed and Zn 2+ was activated for designing a high-efficiency bagasse-based activated carbon, which was characterized by FTIR, XRD, XPS, SEM, EDS, and ζ potential analyses. These analyses illustrated the mechanism of amoxicillin degradation, and microscale zero-valent zinc in bagasse-based activated carbon has a key role in amoxicillin degradation. Amoxicillin was broken down by reductive degraded radicals, which were produced by microscale zero-valent zinc corrosion in water. After the amoxicillin degradation, the byproduct of zinc hydroxide being adsorbed onto the used bagasse-based activated carbon can provide possibility of sustainable regeneration. Mass spectra analysis illustrated the main degradation products of amoxicillin. The kinetic experiments were adopted to observe the process of amoxicillin degradation, followed by the pseudo-first-order kinetic model. The isotherm experiments demonstrated that the maximum amoxicillin degradation capacity of bagasse-based activated carbon was about 46 mg g -1 . The bagasse wastes were used as carbon source to design potential advanced activated carbon materials for increasing degradation of amoxicillin in water.