Simultaneous analysis of 7 fluoroquinolone residues in chicken muscle by ultra performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry

A confirmative method of ultra performance liquid chromatography coupled with electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-ESI-MS/MS) for the simultaneous determination of 7 fluoroquinolone residues (norfloxacin (NOR), ciprofloxacin (CIP), danofloxacin (DAN), enrofloxacin (ENR), ofloxacin (OFL), sarafloxacin (SAR) and marbofloxacin (MAR) ) in chicken muscle was developed. The sample was extracted with acidified acetonitrile, defatted with n-hexane, and purified by an HLB solid phase extraction cartridge. The UPLC separation was performed on an ACQUITY UPLC (TM) BEH C-18 column (50 mm x 2. 1 mm, 1. 7 mu m) utilizing a gradient elution program of acetonitrile and water (containing 0. 1% formic acid) as the mobile phase. The identification and quantification were achieved by using ESIMS/MS in positive ion mode and multiple reaction monitoring (MRM). The linear ranges were from 5 to 100 mu g/kg with the correlation coefficients above 0. 99 for all the 7 fluoroquinolones. The average recoveries spiked at the 3 concentration levels of 5, 25, 50 mu g/kg ranged from 79. 2% to 108. 6% with the relative standard deviations of 4. 2% - 8. 9%. The limits of detection were 0. 2 - 1.4 mu g/kg. The method was proved to be good reproducibility, high sensitivity, rapid, reliable and suitable for the simultaneous determination of multi-residues of fluoroquinolones in chicken muscle.