SIMULTANEOUS DETERMINATION OF 5 MACROLIDE ANTIBIOTICS IN MEAT BY HIGH-PERFORMANCE LIQUID-CHROMATOGRAPHY

A simple and rapid method using high-performance Liquid chromatography (HPLC) for the simultaneous determination of five macrolides (josamyc in, kitasamycin, mirosamicin, spiramycin and tylosin) in meat has been developed. The drugs were extracted with 0.3% metaphosphoric acid-met hanol (7.3, v/v), and the extracts were cleaned up on a Bond Elut SCX (500 mg) cartridge. The HPLC separation was performed on a Puresil 5C( 18) column (150X4.6 mm I.D.) with a gradient system of 0.025 M phospha te buffer (pH 2.5)-acetonitrile as the mobile phase at a flow-rate of 1.0 ml/min. The drugs were detected at 232 nm for josamycin, kitasamyc in, mirosamicin and spiramycin, and 287 nm for tylosin. The calibratio n graphs were rectilinear from 2.5 to 100 ng for each drug. The recove ries at the level of 1.0 mu g/g were 70.8-90.4%, and detection limits were 0.05 mu g/g for each drug. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rig hts reserved.