Simultaneous Determination of Penicillin Antibiotics in Meat using Liquid Chromatography Tandem Mass Spectrometry

The objective of this study was to develop a simultaneous method of 8 penicillin antibiotics includ- ing amoxicillin, ampicillin, cloxacillin, dicloxacillin, nafcillin, oxacillin, penicillin G and penicillin V in meat using LC-MS/MS. The procedure involves solid phase extraction with HLB cartridge and subsequent analysis by LC-MS/ MS. To optimize MS analytical condition of 8 compounds, each parameter was established by multiple reaction mon- itoring in positive ion mode. The chromatographic separation was achieved on a C 18 column with a mobile phase of 0.05% formic acid and 0.05% formic acid in acetonitrile at a flow rate of 0.2 mL/min for 20 min with a gradient elu- tion. The developed method was validated for specificity, linearity, accuracy and precision in beef, pork and chicken. The recoveries were 71.0~106%, and relative standard deviations (RSD) were 4.0~11.2%. The limit of detection (LOD) and the limit of quantification (LOQ) were 0.003~0.008 mg/kg and 0.01~0.03 mg/kg, respectively, that are below maximum residue limit (MRL) of the penicillins. This study also performed survey of residual penicillin antibi- otics for 193 samples of beef, pork and chicken collected from 9 cities in Korea. Penicillins were not found in all the samples except a sample of pork which contained cloxacillin (concentration of 0.08 mg/kg) below the MRL (0.3 mg/kg).