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Articles | Sustainable Environmental Insight | Volume 3 - Issue 2 - 2026 | 170−186 | https://doi.org/10.53623/sein.v3i2.1062
© 2026 by the author(s), and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License

Optimized Adsorption of Sulfonamide Antibiotics from Milk Using Organically Modified Bentonite Clay

Author(s): Wamiq Rasool 1 , Zain-ul-Abideen 1 , Wasif Mehmood Ahmad Malik 2
Author(s) information:
1 Department of Chemistry, Institute of Chemical Sciences, Bahauddin Zakariya University (BZU), Multan 60800, Pakistan
2 Department of Chemistry, Emerson University, Multan 60000, Pakistan

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Sustainable Environmental Insight

Volume 3 - Issue 2 - 2026

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Sulfonamide antibiotic residues in milk are considered highly dangerous to human health and food safety due to their persistence and potential for bioaccumulation. Conventional removal methods were often costly and inefficient, highlighting the need for sustainable and effective alternatives. The study aimed to assess the efficiency of organically modified bentonite clay (OMB-16) in the removal of sulfonamide antibiotics (sulfadimidine sodium, sulfadiazine, and sulfaguanidine) from milk and to optimize the conditions to achieve maximum adsorption capacity. The extraction efficiency of OMB-16 was evaluated in comparison with unmodified bentonite, and key parametersm including solution pH, adsorbent loading, and elution solvent—were optimized. Quantification was performed using high-performance liquid chromatography with an ultraviolet detector (HPLC-UV), which demonstrated that OMB-16 exhibited better extraction performance than untreated bentonite. The recovery percentages using OMB-16 reached 90% for sulfadimidine and sulfadiazine, which were higher than the 80% and 75% recoveries obtained using unmodified bentonite, respectively. The best results were achieved at a mildly acidic pH of 4–5, while methanol was identified as the most efficient desorption solvent. The intra- and inter-day precision of the OMB-16 method was also evaluated, and the results confirmed that the method was reproducible. It was further observed that the HPLC-UV method was sensitive and specific, demonstrating good linearity (R² ≥ 0.99) and low limits of detection. Overall, this study showed that OMB-16 was an effective and reliable adsorbent for removing pharmaceutical residues from complex food matrices such as milk, with potential applications in food safety monitoring and residue analysis.

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SUBMITTED: 19 February 2026
ACCEPTED: 18 April 2026
PUBLISHED: 22 April 2026
SUBMITTED to ACCEPTED: 59 days
DOI: https://doi.org/10.53623/sein.v3i2.1062

Cite this article
Rasool, W. ., Zain-ul-Abideen, & Malik, W. M. A. (2026). Optimized Adsorption of Sulfonamide Antibiotics from Milk Using Organically Modified Bentonite Clay. Sustainable Environmental Insight, 3(2), 170−186. https://doi.org/10.53623/sein.v3i2.1062
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