Simultaneous determination of multi-veterinary drug residues in honey by solid phase extraction-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

Abstract

A method of solid phase extraction-liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (SPE-LC-MS/MS) for simultaneous determination of 54 drug residues (sulfonamides; nitro-imidazoles, quinolones, macrolides, lincosamides and praziquantel) in honey was developed. The honey samples were diluted by phosphate buffer solution (pH 8) followed by a further cleanup procedure with an Oasis (HLB) SPE column. The detection was carried out by LC-MS/MS, using positive-ion electrospray ionization in multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode, with one precursor/two product ion transitions for each compound. Isotope dilution internal standard method or external standard method was used to determine the residue contents with a good linear relationship (r > 0. 992). The limits of quantification (LOQs, S/N > 10) were 1.0 μg/kg for sulfonamides and nitroimidazoles, 2.0 μg/kg for quinolones and lincosamides, 3.0 μg/kg for macrolides, and 0.3 μg/kg for praziquantel. The recovery ranges were from 32.6% to 114% with the relative standard deviations (RSDs) between 1.3% and 28.9%. As a screening method, the developed procedure is suitable for the determination and confirmation of the drug residues in honey samples.