Liquid chromatographic determination of chloramphenicol in kidney tissue homogenates using valve-switching techniques

Abstract

Chloramphenicol is a well known bacteriostatic agent. Because of its toxic side-effects the concentration of the analyte in consumable tissue may not exceed 10 p.p.b. in several countries of the European Community. Therefore, the availability of a bioanalytical method, suitable for routine analysis of pig tissue, is important. Several sample pre-treatment procedures such as liquid-liquid extraction and column-switching methods have been investigated in combination with reversed-phase liquid chromatographic analysis. The required sensitivity and selectivity were obtained by absorption detection. The optimum analytical conditions were found by using a photodiode-array detector and two-column chromatography applying a heart-cutting technique. The determination limits achieved are less than 0.01 µg g^–1.