[Simultaneous determination of four fluoroquinolone residues in edible chicken tissues by reversed-phase high...

A reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatographic method with fluorescence detection was developed for the simultaneous analysis of ciprofloxacin, danofloxacin, enrofloxacin and sarafloxacin residues in edible chicken tissues. The analytes were extracted from chicken muscle, skin and fat, liver, kidney by aqueous potassium dihydrogenphosphate of different pH values through homogenization. The supernatant of the extract was applied onto a C18 solid phase extraction cartridge for clean-up. The separation was achieved on a C18 column, and the detection was performed with a fluorescence detector (excitation at 280 nm and emission at 450 nm). The four fluoroquinolones were analyzed in spiked samples of four chicken tissues with mean recoveries in the range of 53.9%-93.4% at spiked levels of 20-300 microg/kg. The relative standard deviations of inter-assay were no more than 23%. The detection limits of quantification were 20 microg/kg for ciprofloxacin, enrofloxacin and sarafloxacin and 4 microg/kg for danofloxacin. The method is simple, fast, and sufficient for routine analysis.