Development and validation of a high-performance liquid chromatography method for determination of ractopamine...

Ractopamine (RAC) has been approved as a feed additive for swine, cattle or turkey, and is likely to have residue in edible animal products and may pose a potential risk for consumer health. Therefore, it is essential to establish a method to detect the residue of RAC in animal products. This work presents a rapid and sensitive HPLC method for the determination of RAC in pork samples with pre-column derivatization. The RAC derivative was separated on a kromasil C18 column and detected at 284nm with a UV detector. The detection capability (CCβ) was 0.078μgg(-1) and the linearity was established over the concentration range of 0.15-100.0μgg(-1). The overall mean recovery in spike range of 0.2μgg(-1) to 100μgg(-1) was 89.9% with the overall mean relative standard deviation of 4.1%. This method can be used for the quantification of RAC in pork samples and help to establish adequate monitoring of the residue of RAC.