Determination of multiple antibiotics in agricultural soil using a quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe method coupled with ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry.

In this study, we combined ultra-high performance liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry to establish a quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe method of detecting 21 target antibiotics in agricultural soil samples. Antibiotics were extracted with mixed solvents consisting of ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid disodium salt dihydrate and phosphoric acid citric acid buffer and acetonitrile which were purified with octadecylsilyl as an adsorbent and anhydrous sodium sulfate as a desiccant. This method was able to effectively extract all of the target antibiotics from agricultural soils, with recovery efficiencies ranging from 55 to 108% and limits of detection between 0.09-0.68 μg/kg. We also validated this new method for selectivity, sensitivity, and reliability of detecting multiple antibiotics in 12 samples. Considering the potential environmental and public health effects of antibiotics in agricultural soils, our new method can help analyze the degree of antibiotic contamination and provide valuable information for soil quality and risk assessment.