Simultaneous determination of five penicillins in muscle, liver and kidney from slaughtered animals using liquid chromatography coupled with electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry

A simple and rapid method for the simultaneous determination of five penicillins (ampicillin, penicillin G, penicillin V, oxacillin and cloxacillin) in muscle, liver and kidney tissues using high-performance liquid chromatography-electrospray tandem mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS/MS) was developed. Mass spectral acquisition was done in the negative ion mode by applying selected reaction monitoring (SRM). The five penicillins were extracted with water, and the extracted solution was cleaned up on a C18 cartridge. Phenethicillin was added as an internal standard, and the extract was diluted with water for injection into the LC-ESI-MS/MS. The recoveries of the five penicillins were in the range of 77.3similar to99.8% from muscle, liver and kidney fortified at 10similar to250 ng/g. The detection limits for ampicillin were 6 ng/g in muscle and kidney and 15 ng/g in liver. For penicillin G and penicillin V, the detection limits were 2 ng/g in muscle and kidney and 5 ng/g in liver. For oxacillin and cloxacillin, the detection limits were 4 ng/g in muscle and kidney and 10 ng/g in liver. Twenty-three muscle, fourteen liver and twenty-two kidney samples from the markets were analyzed by this method. No penicillins were detected in any sample.