Liquid chromatography with ultraviolet detection of lasalocid, monensin, salinomycin and narasin in poultry feeds using pre-column derivatization.

A rapid and very effective analytical procedure for the simultaneous determination of four polyether antibiotics (PEs) lasalocid, monensin, salinomycin and narasin in poultry feeds was tested. PEs were extracted from samples using methanol and without and clean-up derivatized with 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazine (DNP) in an acidic medium at 55 degrees C. The derivatization mixture was analyzed directly on an ODS column (150 x 4.6 mm, 5 microns) with methanol--1.5% aqueous acetic acid (90:10, v/v) as eluent and UV detection was carried out at 305/392 nm. The recoveries of the PEs from spiked samples were 85-100% with RSDs of 4-10% in a concentration range of 50-150 mg/kg.