High performance liquid chromatographic determination of furazolidone in feed and feed premixes

Furazolidone is separated from finished feeds by acetone-water extraction on a Goldfisch apparatus. Extracting solvent is removed, and the residue is dissolved in dimethylformamide-5% tetraethylammonium bromide (1 +1), clarified, and chromatographed on a reverse phase C1 column. The mobile phase is CH3CN-2% acetic acid (20 + 80) with detection at 365 nm. The method was tested for linearity, recovery, and ruggedness, and compared with the AOAC colorimetric assay by using field samples containing 0.0055-0.055% furazolidone. Precision data suggest a cumulative relative standard deviation of 1.43% within days and 1.78% between days. The ruggedness test predicts a between-laboratory relative standard deviation of 3.67%. Recovery was 97.5 +/- 2.0% and linearity was excellent (r2 = 0.9994) up to 0.06% furazolidone. Premixes are extracted by shaking with dimethylformamide. An aliquot of the extract is diluted (1 + 1) with 5% tetraethylammonium bromide, clarified, and chromatographed.