Determination of Diethylstilbestrol in Aquatic Products by High Performance Liquid Chromatography with Fluorescence Detection

A sensitive method for the determination of diethylstilbestrol (DES) in aquatic products by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) using a fluorescence detector (FLD) was developed. By means of sulfonation in concentrated Sulfuric acid and hydrolysis, DES was converted into a reaction product that can emit fluorescence and determined by HPLC. For the first time, HPLC with FLD was applied to the determination of DES and sensitivity comparable to that of LC-MS gained. The limit of detection was 0.1 mu g.kg(-1), and the recoveries were above 86% with relative standard deviations less than 6.2%. The proposed method was successfully applied to the determination of DES in aquatic products.