RAPID DETECTION OF ANTIBIOTICS IN MEAT-PRODUCTS BY TIME-OF-FLIGHT PLASMA DESORPTION MASS-SPECTROMETRY

Time-of-flight plasma desorption mass spectrometry is a promising tech nique for rapid detection of antibiotics, used in veterinary medicine, in meat products. The detection procedure includes a simple sample pr eparation step (chloroform extraction of aqueous homogenates of meat p roducts) followed by measuring mass spectra of solid-phase samples obt ained by drying multicomponent biomatrices (chloroform extracts from m eat products) on a gold support. The technique is most sensitive to th e commonly used antibiotic trimethoprim: the detection limit of trimet hoprim in extracts from meat products is 0.1-0.2 mu g per sample.