Simultaneous determination of urinary metabolites of workers exposed to benzene, toluene and xylene mixture with HPLC using beta-cyclodextrine

The high-performance liquid chromatographic determination of eight metaboli tes was evaluated with a beta- cyclodextrine (beta-CD) added C-18 column. T he urinary metabolites were hippuric acid (HA), phenol, o-, m-, p-methylhip puric acid (MHA) and o-, m-, p-cresol in untreated urine samples of factory workers exposed to benzene, toluene and xylene mixture. Eluting sequence o f eight metabolites was shown to be the order of HA, o-MHA, phenol, p-MHA, m-MHA, p-cresol, m-cresol, and o-cresol. The optimum ratio of the mobile ph ase was selected 20/80/0.3/1.4% to ethanol/water/acetic acid/beta-CD, in wh ich was shown 2 < k' < 6 for five metabolites. Optimum concentration ranges and detection limits for the metabolites of factory worker's urine samples were determined.