Synthesis and application of boronic acid-functionalized magnetic adsorbent for sensitive analysis of salbutamol residues in pig tissues.

Salbutamol (SAL) is the most widely used β2 -agonist drug for asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary patients, but it is also often abused as feed additive. In recent years, the abuse of SAL has led to a large number of food safety incidents. Therefore, the monitoring of SAL residues in animal products is very important. A highly selective boronate affinity magnetic adsorbent was synthesized and developed for detection of trace levels of SAL residues in pig tissue samples. The obtained Fe3O4@SiO2@FPBA(4-formylphenylboronic acid) magnetic adsorbent showed good adsorption ability to catechol and SAL, and then it was successfully applied as special magnetic solid-phase phase extraction adsorbent coupled with high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) for simultaneous isolation and determination of cis-diol compounds. The binding capacity of catechol and SAL reached 96 and 50 µmol/g, respectively. The method was successfully established for the detection of trace levels of SAL in pig tissue samples. The linear range extended from 0.32 to 800 µg/kg (R(2) = 0.9994). The limit of detection of SAL was 0.19 µg/kg. The recoveries were satisfactory (89.5-108.0%) at three spiked levels with RSD between 2.1 and 11.3%. These results indicated that the method has potential for enrichment and detection of trace levels of SAL residual in animal food products.