Simultaneous measurement of fluoroquinolones in eggs by a combination of supercritical fluid extraction and high pressure liquid chromatography.

Simultaneous detection of the fluoroquinolone antibiotics ciprofloxacin, enrofloxacin, ofloxacin, and norfloxacin in eggs by a combination of supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) and high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) was studied. Lipid matrices that have been considered to result in poor extraction and isolation of fluoroquinolones in eggs were removed first by SFE with supercritical CO(2) alone, and then the fluoroquinolones were extracted by SFE with supercritical CO(2) containing 20% (v/v) methanol for HPLC analysis. A time-course study of the extraction of lipid matrices of eggs suggested that the SFE method successfully removed the matrices within 20 min. When the fluoroquinolones added to control eggs were extracted by SFE, the extraction efficiency was similar to that by the solvent extraction method, giving the recovery percentages from 83 to 96% in a 40 min-extraction time. The fluoroquinolones extracted from eggs by SFE were analyzed simultaneously by HPLC equipped with a fluorescence detector with detection sensitivity at about 10 ppb for the detection limit. The standard calibration profiles of fluoroquinolones showed linear responses to HPLC, showing more than 0.995 for the mean r(2) value. This is the first report of the simultaneous measurement of fluoroquinolones in eggs by a combination of SFE and HPLC. Using the SFE method allowed us to avoid extensive sample preparation such as solvent extraction and chromatographic cleanup that are basically required in extraction of fluoroquinolones.