Etude comparative des methodes d'analyses de la contamination petroliere dans l'environment marin. 1. Etude fluorometrique.

Although the determination of hydrocarbons in the marine environment is based usually on the same analytical steps, organic solvents extraction, column chromatography purification, and means for hydrocarbons detection and identification, the variations in the equipment and solvent systems included in the different established techniques hinder to obtain a global idea about the oil contamination state of the seas. Many authors and conferences declared the necessity of carrying out a comparative study on the efficiencies of the various published analytical techniques in this field. According to the facilities available in the laboratory, 25 applications of 16 published techniques were applied on a fixed weight of unique sample of sediments, mussels, fishes, shrimps and green algae. All the details and precautions stated in every separate procedure were followed. The final hydrocarbonic extracts were examined spectrofluorometrically at e 300 nm, e 370 nm and e 395 nm. The application of different techniques showed considerable variations in the characters of the fluorescence of the produced hydrocarbonic extracts. This indicate that there are great variations in the composition and concentrations of the constituents.