2026-04-09 コペンハーゲン大学（UCPH）
＜関連情報＞
- https://news.ku.dk/all_news/2026/03/fish-on-antidepressants-researchers-develop-new-weapon-against-toxic-substances-in-wastewater/
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969725016043
都市下水における抗うつ薬の運命：アミトリプチリン、メリトラセン、およびそれらの分解生成物の除去に最も効果的な戦略としての活性炭 Fate of antidepressants in municipal wastewater: Activated carbon as the most effective removal strategy for amitriptyline, melitracen, and their transformation products
Isidora Dukic, Jan H. Christensen, Selina Tisler
Science of The Total Environment Available: online 28 June 2025
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2025.179964
Graphical abstract
Highlights
- AMI was removed by adsorption and biodegradation; MEL was removed by adsorption only.
- Fourteen TPs were identified after treatment, including six novel TPs.
- Four TPs were detected in municipal effluent and effectively removed by activated carbon.
- Notryptilin and other TPs predicted to be highly toxic to fish and daphnia.
- AMI-derived TPs predicted to be more toxic than MEL-derived TPs.
Abstract
The increasing prescription of antidepressants (ATDs) has led to their widespread detection worldwide. Among these, amitriptyline (AMI) and melitracen (MEL) are particularly problematic due to their high toxicity and low removal efficiency in conventional wastewater treatment.
Biotic transformation products (TPs) of AMI are largely unexplored due to limited biodegradation reported. For MEL, environmental fate studies remain scarce, leaving potential TPs from both biotic and abiotic processes unexplored. This study investigates the transformation and fate of AMI, MEL, and their TPs during biological treatment and ozonation processes. Complete removal of AMI was achieved through adsorption and biodegradation, whereas MEL exhibited only partial removal (75 ± 15 %), predominantly through sludge adsorption. In addition to the well-known TP nortriptyline, two new biotic TPs for AMI and one for MEL were identified. Ozonation resulted in the formation of six TPs for AMI and four for MEL, with partial removal (<55 %) of both ATDs. Toxicity predictions indicated that TPs exhibited toxicity levels comparable to the parent compounds for aquatic organisms. Notably, four of the newly identified TPs of AMI and MEL were also detected in real effluent samples from full-scale treatment plants. Laboratory-scale granular activated carbon (GAC) treatment of unspiked effluent proved to be an effective tertiary treatment method for the removal (>94 %) of AMI, MEL, and their TPs.
