Determination of thiamphenicol residues in chicken muscles by column liquid chromatography

A column liquid chromatographic (CLC) method for the determination of thiamphenicol residues in chicken muscles was developed. The drug is extracted from minced muscles with ethyl acetate and the extract is evaporated to dryness. The residue is dissolved in 10% sodium chloride solution and partitioned with n-hexane. Thiamphenicol is extracted with ethyl acetate and, after evaporation of the solvent, the residue is cleaned up by alumina column chromatography. CLC analysis is carried out on a Nucleosil C18 column with ultraviolet detection of thiamphenicol at 230 nm. The average recoveries of thiamphenicol added to muscles at 0.2 and 0.1 ppm were 92.8 and 90.0%, respectively. The detection limit was 5 ng for thiamphenicol standard, which corresponds to 0.05 ppm in muscles.