Abstract
A method was developed for identification of phospholipids in soils and sewage sludges. This method involves extraction of the phospholipids from soils or sewage sludges with a chloroform‐methanol mixture and analysis of an aliquot of the extract (10 µL) with a high‐performance liquid chromatograph coupled with a normal‐phase silica‐gel analytical column. The eluent used was a mixture of acetonitrile‐methanol‐phosphoric acid (vol/vol/vol, 260:12:3). Absorbance at 205 nm was used as a means of detection. The following phospholipids were identified in soil and sewage sludge samples: phosphatidyl choline (PC), phosphatidyl ethanolamine (PE), phosphatidyl inositol (PI), and phosphatidyl serine (PS). The identities of the peaks were verified by standard additions technique and by two‐dimensional thin‐layer chromatography.The concentration of lipid P in soils and sewage sludges ranged from 0.50 to 2.38 and from 38.2 to 330 mg kg−1, respectively. The amounts of PE and PC present in six soils ranged from 5.4 to 16 µg P kg−1 (avg = 10.1) and from 3.6 to 48 (avg = 20.9), respectively. The corresponding ranges for these phospholipids in six sewage sludge samples were 3.5 to 13 mg kg−1 (avg = 6.1) and 0 to 6.8 (avg = 3.6). The other phospholipids were not detected in most of the soil and sewage sludge samples studied.

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