Ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-electrospray tandem mass spectrometry for the analysis of antibiotic residues in environmental waters

Abstract

An optimized solid-phase extraction (SPE) and ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-electrospray tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) method was developed for the effective analysis of 35 antibiotics including sulfonamides (SAs), quinolones (QLs), tetracyclines (TCs), macrolides (MALs), lincomycin (LIN), and chloramphenicol (CAP). The addition of 0.1% formic acid to the mobile phase was favorable for the formation of [M + H](+) and the enhancement in the detection signals, but using ammonium formate decreased [M + H](+) with a corresponding reduction in the response of CAP. The optimal pH range for the SPE was 4.5 ∼ 5.0 with 6 mL aqueous ammonia/methanol (5/95, v/v) as the optimized eluent. An internal standard (IS) was selected for each type of analytes based on similarities in classification and retention time. The detection was completed in less than 10 min and was excellent with method detection limits (MDL) of 0.29 ∼ 4.03 ng/L. The recoveries of the antibiotics in samples from ultrapure water and groundwater were 67.13 ∼ 93.00% and 68.91 ∼ 92.67%, respectively. The antibiotics in samples collected from wastewater, surface water, and groundwater were also effectively detected. This newly developed method has the advantages of short detection times, small sample consumption, excellent reproducibility, and high sensitivity. This provides a reliable and promising technique for the simultaneous detection and monitoring of various residual antibiotics in aqueous environmental samples.

Distribution and persistence of cephalosporins in cephalosporin producing wastewater using SPE and UPLC–MS/MS method

“…In recent years, ultra-performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) is in favor due to its high separation efficiency, relatively short run time and many other advantages (Sui et al, 2010;Xue et al, 2015). In this study, first, a measuring method for seven selected cephalosporins in CPWW was established based on SPE and UPLC-MS/MS.…”

Detection, Occurrence and Fate of Emerging Contaminants in Agricultural Environments

“…Xue et al (2015) optimized a method using UPLC/MS/MS for the analysis of 35 antibiotics, including lincomycin, chloramphenicol, and other analytes from the compound classes of sulfonamides, quinolones, macrolides, and tetracyclines, from ground water, surface water, and wastewater. Extraction using Oasis HLB ™ SPE cartridges were optimized and analytes were detected in positive electrospray ionization mode using 0.1% formic acid in the mobile phase.…”

Multiclass method for the quantification of 92 veterinary antimicrobial drugs in livestock excreta, wastewater, and surface water by liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry

“…It was a difficult extraction and cleanup process for many different classes compounds due to their different physicochemical properties . Methods reported to determine veterinary antimicrobial drugs in urine, faces, and water were LLE and SPE . The QuEChERS (Quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged and safe) method was used to extract veterinary antimicrobial drugs in urine .…”

“…Currently, more sensitive method for the determination of veterinary antimicrobial drugs in livestock excreta is MS, due to its unambiguous identification and accurate quantification possibilities. Some LC-MS or LC-MS/MS methods have been developed to determine veterinary antimicrobial drugs in livestock excreta in some earlier studies [3,[9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]. However, such methods were developed to detect only one class or a few classes of veterinary antimicrobial drugs in urine.…”