Salting-out extraction of catechol and hydroquinone from aqueous solutions and urine samples

The influence of ammonium, sodium, potassium, and magnesium chlorides and sulfates on the extraction of catechol and hydroquinone with diethyl and diisopropyl ether was studied. All the salts investigated in this study largely increased the extraction efficiency of both catechol and hydroquinone from aqueous solutions, magnesium salts being the most efficient salting-out agents. The extraction efficiency in the presence of magnesium salts in comparison to the extraction efficiencies from the salt-free aqueous solutions increased from 14%, in the case of catechol extraction with diethyl ether, up to about 90%, in the case of hydroquinone extraction with diisopropyl ether. The extraction from spiked urine samples proved that investigation of salting-out effect in aqueous solutions could be used as a good model system for the reliable choice of optimal conditions for catechol and hydroquinone extraction from real samples.