Aqueous ultrasound-assisted extraction for the determination of fluoroquinolones in mangrove sediment by high-performance liquid chromatography and fluorescence detector

Abstract

A method for simultaneous analysis of ciprofloxacin (CIP), levofloxacin (LEV) and norfloxacin (NOR) in mangrove sediment was developed using aqueous ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE), solid phase extraction (SPE) and high-performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection (HPLC-FD). The method showed excellent linear correlation coefficient for the three fluoroquinolones (r2 > 0.999) using external calibration curve and good recovery in real sediment samples ranging from 73.73 to 88.85%. The precision showed a relative standard deviation lower than 20% and detection limits of 1.10, 3.33 and 0.26 µg kg-1 to CIP, LEV and NOR, respectively. There was no presence of interfering. After validation, the method was applied in the determination of pharmaceuticals in mangrove sediment in the Paciência River, Maranhão Island, Brazil. Only the CIP antibiotic was found in three of six samples analyzed, with values ranging 56.55-70.45 µg kg-1.