| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立成功大學 === 環境工程學系 === 106 === β-Methylamino-L-alanine (BMAA), a neurotoxic algal toxin, produced by many common cyanobacteria, has been associated with neurological diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis/parkinsonism–dementia complex and Alzheimer’s disease. Therefore, BMAA may pose potential health risks to the people who take cyanobacteria-laden water for drinking source. However, BMAA is difficult to analyze due to its low concentrations in naural water, and very limited information is available about the presence of BMAA in drinking water sources. Therefore, the objective of this study is to optimize the pretreatment processes to concentrate BMAA in environmental samples and to investigate the levels of BMAA in Taiwan’s source and drinking water. Two methods, solid phase extraction and nitrogen purging, were employed to concentrate BMAA in deionized water and natural water. A liquid chromatograph coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) was then used to quantify BMAA concentration in water samples. The results showed that BMAA was detected in 9 reservoirs (100% detected) in Taiwan and in offshore islands, including raw water and finished water, and the concentrations were in the range of 0.04-2.59 μg-L-1. For nitrogen purging, the results showed that the matrix effects had influences on the response in LC/MS/MS of BMAA after concentrated for 25 folds. These results suggest that the BMAA concentrations measured may be underestimated in environmental samples, if using the current analytical methods.
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