Separation of extracts from biological tissues into polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, polychlorinated biphenyl and polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxin/polychlorinated dibenzofuran fractions prior to analysis.

A low-pressure liquid chromatography method is presented for separating polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins/polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDDs/PCDFs) from biological tissue extracts. After removing lipid from extracts, the PAHs are separated from PCBs and PCDDs/PCDFs on a deactivated 13-24 microns silica gel column. The PCBs are subsequently separated from PCDDs/PCDFs by collecting the first fraction from an automated three column cleanup procedure for PCDDs/PCDFs. The complete method has been used to obtain high recoveries of the three compound classes for analysis by GC-electron capture detection (PCBs) or GC-MS (PAHs and PCDDs/PCDFs).