Determination of Cefacetrile and Cefuroxime Residues in Milk by Thin-Layer Chromatography

A simple thin-layer chromatography screening method was developed for the determination of two cephalosporins (cefacetrile and cefuroxime) in milk. Only two developments of TLC plates with concentrating zones are required: pre-development with hexane, as a clean-up procedure to remove lipids from milk samples, and a proper development with methanol-toluene-ethyl acetate-98% formic acid (5:20:65:10) phase. The video camera was used to detect spots on chromatograms. The recoveries of both antibiotics in milk were calculated over five days from the preparation of the samples. The best results, obtained on the second day of the experiment, were 97.66% for cefacetrile and 86.13% for cefuroxime.