Quantitative Analysis of Amoxicillin, Amoxicillin Major Metabolites, and Ampicillin in Chicken Tissues via Ultra-Performance Liquid Chromatography-Electrospray Ionization Tandem Mass Spectrometry

This manuscript describes a rapid, sensitive, and specific approach that utilizes ultra-performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization tandem triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (UPLC-ESI/MS/MS) for the selective determination of amoxicillin, amoxicillin metabolites, and ampicillin in chicken tissue samples (muscle, liver, and kidney). This optimized method was validated according to the requirements defined by the European Union and the Food and Drug Administration. The extract obtained after extraction and purification of chicken tissues was injected into a UPLC system coupled to a mass spectrometer operated in the positive electrospray MS/MS mode for analysis. The chicken tissues were spiked with the target compounds at levels of 25.0, 50.0, and 100.0 μg/kg, and the results showed that the extraction recoveries were all higher than 84% and the relative standard deviations did not exceed 20%. The limits of detection and limits of quantification were 0.01–1.36 and 0.05–5.44 μg/kg, respectively. The decision limits were 52.62–57.26 μg/kg, and the detection capabilities were 55.23–64.51 μg/kg. Finally, the new approach was verified through quantitative determination of the analytes in tissues from 30 commercial chickens obtained from local supermarkets.