Square-wave voltammetric determination of cefoperazone in a bacterial culture, pharmaceutical drug, milk, and urine.

Use of square-wave voltammetry (SWV) for determination of cefoperazone (CFPZ) in some buffers, bacterial culture, urine, and milk is described. CFPZ provides a specific voltammetric signal which is affected by pH and solution components. Determination of CFPZ in Britton-Robinson buffer, pH 4.4, is sensitive with a low detection limit (about 0.5 nmol L(-1)). In a more complex medium (bacterial 2YT medium, pH 7.2) the detection limit was approximately 1.5 micromol L(-1). We provide evidence that SWV is a suitable and quick method for CFPZ determination in a culture of living bacteria without separation of biomass. We have found big differences between methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA) in cultivation in the presence of CFPZ, depending on time. When CFPZ is cleaved by penicillinase, a new SWV peak b appears at more positive potentials. This peak rises both with increasing concentration of enzyme and with cleavage time while the original CFPZ peak is simultaneously decreasing. We determined the concentration of CFPZ in the drug Pathozone by the standard addition method and achieved good agreement with the declared value of CFPZ in the drug. With a simple pretreatment procedure it is possible to determine CFPZ in milk; for urine no pretreatment was required. Using SWV we could detect CFPZ concentrations as low as 500 nmol L(-1) in bovine milk and human urine.