OPTICAL-DETECTION OF CHLORAMPHENICOL USING MOLECULARLY IMPRINTED POLYMERS

A practical optical sensing system for the determination of chloramphe nicol (CAP), utilizing molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) and HPLC, has been developed, The method is based on competitive displacement o f a chloramphenicol-methyl red (CAP-MR) dye conjugate from specific bi nding cavities in an imprinted polymer by the analyte. The best of the se polymers was obtained using (diethylamino)ethyl methacrylate as fun ctional monomer at a monomer:template ratio of 2:1. HPLC with a mobile phase containing CAP-MR was used as the detection system, and injecti on of CAP and, to a lesser degree, thiamphenicol resulted in proportio nal displacement of the conjugate, which was detected at 460 nn, The d etection system showed a linear response over a range of 3 - 1000 mu g /mL and effectively detected CAP extracted from serum, This system off ers a tailor-made, selective, and rapid method for CAP detection, is a ble to discriminate between similar molecules, and is effective below and above the therapeutic range (10-20 mu g/mL serum, potentially toxi c above 25 mu g/mL). This technique is quite general and should enable the use of MIPs in a wide variety of applications involving the detec tion of families of molecules which possess a distinct arrangement of functional groups.