| Abstract
| - Plants synthesize many phytochemicals, includingflavonoids, which may be present in the heartwood oftrees used in the pulp and paper industry. Extracts wereprepared from wood pulp and mill effluent collected from ableached kraft mill in Ontario, Canada, and these extractswere subfractionated by LH-20 gel filtration chromatographyand analyzed by liquid chromatography electrospray ionizationmass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS) and LC-ESI-tandemmass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS-MS). Initial LC-MS analysisin negative ion mode was conducted by monitoring ionscorresponding to the deprotonated molecular ions of a rangeof flavonoid compounds. The presence of chromatographicpeaks generated by selected ion monitoring (SIM) insamples of both mill effluent and wood pulp encouragedfurther analysis. Of the compounds highlighted by LC-ESI-MS-SIM analysis, the isoflavonoid genistein was positivelyidentified by LC-ESI-MS-MS. Genistein was quantified at aconcentration of 30.0 μg/kg in air-dried wood pulp andconcentrations of 13.1 μg/L and 10.5 μg/L in untreated andtreated (final) effluent, respectively. Genistein is a knownendocrine disruptor substance and, therefore, could contributeto the alterations in sex steroid levels and reducedreproductive capacity observed in fish captured near thedischarges of pulp mills.
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