Abstract
The study aims at demonstration of fecal pollution indicator by analysis of the steroids found in human, pig, and cattle feces. The chloromethyldimethylchlorosilane (CMDS)-derivatives of the fecal stanols were specifically separated on Florisil column chromatography by elution with n-hexane containing 0.5% ethyl ether (Fraction 1). GC analysis revealed that Fraction 1 had mainly four components, named as Peak (1)-Peak (4). These components were subsequently identified as coprostanol (Peak (1)), and tentatively as methylcoprostanol (Peak (2)), 24-ethyl-5β-cholesten-3β-ol (Peak (3)), ethylcoprostanol (Peak (4)) by mass fragment spectrometry (GC-MS). It was found that the peak height ratio (Peak (4)/Peak (1)) was characteristically different among animal species, suggesting useful indicator of fucal pollution. Mean values of the ratio were given as 0.167 (γ, 0.767 ; n, 40) for human, 0.569 (γ, 0.703 ; n, 45) for pig, 1.33 (γ, 0.944 ; n, 32) for cow, 1.65 (γ, 0.651 ; n, 10) for ox, and 1.12 (γ, 0.974 ; n, 10) for Japanese cattle.
