Abstract
To determine the concentrations of microcystins present in lake water or in tap water using high performance liquid chromatography, it is necessary to concentrate a large volume of water samples (about 20 L) into very small volume (0.1-0.3 mL). Concentration can be conveniently done when disc type solid phase extraction (SPE) apparatus is used. Using this apparatus we have investigated the recovery rates of three kinds of microcystins, RR, YR, LR. The recovery rates were relatively low and the reproducibilities were not good either. It is expected, however, that the appropriate selection of the disc conditioning and eluting solvents and reproducible reconcentration process after SPE will improve both the recovery rates and the reproducibilities.
