Coprostanol (5β-cholestan-3β-ol) in lagoonal sediments and mussels of Venice, Italy

Assessment of historical fecal contamination in Curitiba, Brazil, in the last 400 years using fecal sterols

“…The coprostanol + epicoprostanol/cholesterol ratio reported by Standley et al (2000) for sediments suggests that values lower than 0.1 are observed in sediment with wastewater from sewage treatment plants, meanwhile for the same ratio values greater than 0.5 indicate untreated wastewaters (Furtula et al, 2012). Sherwin et al (1993) reported that the coprostanol + epicoprostanol/Σtotal sterols ratio can be used to identify untreated sewage contamination when values are greater than 0.2. These two ratios were calculated and are presented in Fig.…”

“…Some sterols, such as dinosterol, cholesterol, campesterol, β-sitosterol, β-sitostanol, cholestanol, and stigmasterol, among others, may originate from natural sources, while coprostanol, cholestanol, and epicoprostanol are exclusively of fecal origin (Bebianno and Mudge, 1997;Evershed et al, 2002). Previous studies have revealed that cats, pigs, cows, horses, sheep, and humans can transform cholesterol into coprostanol (Sherwin et al, 1993;Standley et al, 2000;Ali and Mudge, 2005). Nevertheless, the sterol profiles of herbivores such as sheep or cows are dominated by specific sterols, including sitosterol, stigmasterol, and campesterol, but contain very little coprostanol, while the sterol profiles of humans and pigs are dominated by coprostanol (Leeming et al, 1996).…”

Faecal sterols as indicators of sewage contamination in estuarine sediments of the Tay Estuary, Scotland: an extended baseline survey

“…The chromatographic techniques used here clearly resolved coprostanol and epicoprostanol based upon their different cis-and transstructures by lengthening the retention time. Once it had been established that there was not a significant amount of epicoprostanol in the sediments, coprostanol and epicoprostanol were considered together in ratios, following the precedent set by Venkatesan and Kaplan (1990), Sherwin et al (1993), Jeng et al (1996), Sherblom et al (1997), Chan et al (1998) and Marvin et al (2001). In particular, the authors showed that in ratios such as 5β/(5α+5β), the combination of coprostanol and epicoprostanol can elucidate the presence or absence of faecal material more clearly than on the basis of coprostanol alone.…”

Recent Advances in the Use of Chemical Markers for Tracing Wastewater Contamination in Aquatic Environment: A Review

“…Writer et al [113] showed that the combined use of geochemical data and a mass balance hydrological model enabled a better understanding of contaminant transport in Mississippi river. The ratio of COP + ECOP Σ Sterols reported by Sherwin et al [114] could be utilized to detect untreated sewage contamination when values are above 0.2. Several SSs ratio developed enables level of wastewater contamination and pollution source identified, e.g., human and non-human (Tables 2 and 3).…”