A critical review on extraction and analytical methods of phthalates in water and beverages

Phthalates (PAEs) are the class of lipophilic chemicals, which are used as additives in the manufacturing of plastics. It results in presence of PAEs in water and beverages because of their migration capacity. Their presence has attracted considerable attention due to their potential impacts on ecosystem functioning and public health. In addition, an enormous number of research articles have been published between 2000 and 2020, which have been identified and their results have been tabulated displaying PAEs analyzed, matrices, sample preparation, analytical method used, the limit of detection (LOD), and recovery percentages. Numerous sample preparation and analytical methods are found which are suitable for the reliable determination of the PAEs. The analysis of the PAEs is difficult due to their ubiquitous presence and their complexity, therefore suitable precautions, should be taken into account. In this review, we provide an overview of various pre-treatment measures and detection methods for PAEs in several types of water and beverages, mainly focusing on the last 20 years published works have been discussed. Pre-treatment methods mainly include liquid-liquid extraction (LLE), solid-phase extraction (SPE), solid-phase microextraction (SPME), liquid-phase microextraction (LPME), and many more rare techniques. Chromatographic and non-chromatographic techniques coupled with or without diodes, spectrophotometers, and detectors, have been described. The concept of "green analytical chemistry" for PAE determination has also been discussed. Hereby, the limitations and challenges in these applications are also included.