Theory and methodology of antibiotic extraction from biomatrices

A short review on the basic theory and practices of the extraction and clean-up of agricultural antibiotics from biomatrices is presented. For the analysis of residues of ionophores, beta-lactams, macrolides, chloramphenicol, aminoglycosides, tetracyclines and peptide antibiotics, the use of solid-phase extraction has become nearly ubiquitous as part of the basic extraction methodology. The majority of the methodologies for these compounds report recoveries greater than 70%, with relative standard deviations usually less than 15%. Each of the antibiotic classes, as well as antibiotics within each class, have unique chemistries that must be taken into account when developing a viable extraction method.