Determination of butoxyacetic acid in urine by capillary gas chromatography

A simple, rapid and reliable method is presented for the determination of butoxyacetic acid (BAA), the main metabolite of ethylene glycol monobutyl ether (Butyl Cellosolve). The urine is acidified with hydrochloric acid and passed through a cation-exchange column. BAA which is quantitatively found in the filtrate is subsequently adsorbed on XAD-4 resin. After desorption with diethyl ether an aliquot of the eluate is evaporated in a nitrogen stream and methylated with diazomethane in diethyl ether. A forty-fold enrichment is achieved by this procedure. The gas-chromatographic separation is performed on a 60 m fused silica capillary column DB-1 (100% dimethyl-polysiloxane). Flame ionization is used for detection. Pentoxyacetic acid (PAA) serves as internal standard. The detection limit of BAA in urine is 0.02 mg/l. Linearity has been tested up to 50 mg/l. The losses by the clean-up steps are between 10.0% and 22.7%. The average recovery is 100.9%. Within-series imprecision (n=10) has been determined for three concentrations and ranges between 4.8% and 12.6%.