Microwave-assisted extraction and in situ clean-up for the determination of fluoroquinolone antibiotics in chicken breast muscle by LC-MS/MS

A new method was developed for the determination of six fluoroquinolone antibiotics including fleroxacin, levofloxacin, ciprofloxacin, lomfloxacin, enrofloxacin, and sparfloxacin in chicken breast muscle, in which the extraction and clean-up were performed in one step by microwave irradiation. The mixture of ACN containing 0.3% v/v phosphoric acid/water pH 3 (70: 30, v/v) was used as the extraction solution and hexane was used as the clean-up solution. The extract was analyzed by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry system. The RSDs of intra-and inter-day obtained are in the range of 1.0-10.4 and 3.8-13.6%, respectively. In the three fortified levels of chicken breast muscle (20, 100, and 500 ng/g), the recoveries of fluoroquinolone antibiotics ranging from 66.0 to 97.2% are obtained. The LODs are in the range of 2.7-6.7 ng/g. This method simplifies the process of the sample preparation and reduces the operation errors.