Effective separation and simultaneous determination of four fluoroquinolones in milk by CE with SPE

Abstract

A simple and sensitive capillary electrophoresis method with solid phase extraction was developed for the determination of sarafloxacin, ciprofloxacin, enrofloxacin and flumequine in milk. Solid-phase extraction with Oasis HLB cartridge column was used for the isolation of four fluoroquinolones in raw milk from a farm and fresh milk sample. Separation conditions of CE, including running buffer, voltage and temperature, were investigated and optimized. Baseline separation was achieved for the four fluoroquinolones under the developed conditions. Correlation coefficients greater than 0.9998 were obtained for all fluoroquinolones with a dynamic range from 1 up to 100 mg L -1. The intra-day precision was less than 5%, and the inter-day precision was less than 6%. The method recoveries of four fluoroquinolones were in the range of 70.9-90.6%. The detection limits for sarafloxacin, ciprofloxacin, enrofloxacin and flumequine was 19.8, 15.2, 13.3 and 15.9 μg kg-1, respectively, which allows positive detection of the fluoroquinolones at the targeted maximum residue levels in milk samples. © 2008 The Author(s).