High-performance liquid chromatography of sulphonamides extracted from bovine and porcine muscle by solid-phase...

A method has been developed for the analysis of sulphonamides in bovine and porcine muscle, based on solid-phase dispersion. Muscle tissue was blended with pre-washed C18 coated silica (55-105 microns), and the resulting homogeneous solid packed into a polypropylene syringe barrel. Fatty material was washed from the sample using hexane, and the sulphonamide analytes eluted with dichloromethane. The collected fraction was dried under nitrogen and reconstituted in 20% methanol in 0.01 M sodium acetate/acetic acid (pH 5) buffer. After sonication and filtration, the sample was analysed by high-performance liquid chromatography on a C18 column using UV diode array detection. Individual sulphonamides could be detected down to 0.01 ppm, whilst analyte identity could be confirmed by diode array spectrum down to 0.02 ppm.