Detection of bound residues in soils by sandwich-immunoassay

Immunoassays are useful analytical instruments for the detection of many environmental compounds. This method is now introduced for the detection of non-extractable compounds in soil. So-called 'bound residues' consist of a soil component, e.g. humic acids, and an irreversibly bound pollutant. Because of the complexity of those macromolecules conventional analytical methods in general do not work. Enzyme immunoassays, in contrast, seem to have a large potential for applications and further developments in this field. The use of antibodies with high affinity to the analytes makes a selective detection of environmental pollutants possible. With the development of an enzyme-labeled sandwich-immunoassay polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), irreversibly bound to humic acids, were determined for the first time.