Application of Micellar Mobile Phase for Quantification of Sulfonamides in Medicated Feeds by HPLC-DAD

Rapid chromatographic procedure for quantification of five sulfonamides in medicated feeds are proposed. Satisfactory separation of sulfonamides from medicated feeds was achieved using a Zorbax Eclipse XDB C18 column (4.6 x 150 mm, 5 mu m particle size) with a micellar mobile phase consisting of 0.05 M sodium dodecyl sulphate, 0.02 M phosphate buffer, and 6% propan-2-ol (pH 3). UV quantitation was set at 260 nm. The proposed procedure allows the determination of sulfaguanidine, sulfadiazine, sulfamerazine, sulfamethazine, and sulfamethoxazole in medicated feeds for pigs and poultry. Application of the proposed method to the analysis of five pharmaceuticals gave recoveries between 72.7% to 94.7% and coefficients of variations for repeatability and reproducibility between 2.9% to 9.8% respectively, in the range of 200 to 2000 mg/kg sulfonamides in feeds. Limit of detection and limit of quantification were 32.7-56.3 and 54.8-98.4 mg/kg, respectively, depending on the analyte. The proposed procedure for the quantification of sulfonamides is simple, rapid, sensitive, free from interferences and suitable for the routine control of feeds. In the world literature, we did not find the described method of quantitative determination of sulfonamides in medicated feeds with the use of micellar liquid chromatography.

Automated summary

A rapid and sensitive method using micellar liquid chromatography was proposed for quantification of five sulfonamides in medicated feeds for pigs and poultry. The method showed satisfactory separation and quantification of sulfonamides, with recovery rates between 72.7% to 94.7% and low coefficients of variations for repeatability and reproducibility. This proposed procedure provides a simple and interference-free approach for routine control of feeds.