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Updated: May 27, 2026

Capturing Actively Produced Microbial Volatile Organic Compounds from Human-Associated Samples with Vacuum-Assisted Sorbent Extraction
Published on: June 1, 2022
Development of headspace-gas chromatography-flame ionization detection procedure to determine volatile fatty acids in
Anna Banel1, Marta Wasielewska, Monika Felchner-Zwirełło
1Gdansk University of Technology, 11/12 Narutowicza Street, 80-223 Gdańsk, Poland.
Abstract:
In order to determine volatile fatty acids (short chain monocarboxylic acids with 2 to 6 carbon atoms in a molecule) in leachates formed in organic waste piles a procedure based on static headspace (HS) coupled with gas chromatography (GC) have been proposed and optimized. The conditions of HS extraction and sample introduction into a gas chromatograph as well as of chromatographic separation were considered. Using flame ionization detection LODs were of the order of 0.02-0.37 mg/L. The analyzed leachate collecting on and close to a zoo organic waste pile contained VFAs (Volatile Fatty Acids) at a concentration ranging from 5.5 mg/L to 0.88 g/L and from below LOD to 10.1 mg/L for pool water at some distance from the pile, respectively.

