Use of solid phase Florisil cartridges to separate fat from semivolatile organic compounds in adipose tissue.

A quick method for separation of semivolatile organic compounds from fat in adipose tissue has been developed. This method uses commercially available solid phase cartridges for sample cleanup. The results indicate that the recoveries, from hexane-extracted fat, of 4 representative classes of organic compounds range from 86.2 to 116%. The solid phase cartridges provide excellent separations of the fat from the analytes; no extraneous interference peaks were detected in the gas chromatograms. The method requires only 0.1 g sample and is quick and simple to use. Although results are reported for samples containing 1-14 ppm, the final extract can be concentrated to a volume allowing detection between 10 and 100 ppb.