Methods of Analyte Concentration in a Capillary

Analytical Methods Based on Liquid Chromatography and Capillary Electrophoresis to Determine Neonicotinoid Residues in Complex Matrices. A Comprehensive Review

Neonicotinoids (NNIs) are neuro-active and systemic insecticides widely used to protect crops from pest attack. During the last decades, there has been an increase concern about their uses and toxic effects, especially to beneficial and non-target insects such as pollinators. To assess potential health hazards and the environmental impacts derived from NNIs uses, a great variety of analytical procedures for the determination of their residues and their metabolites at trace level in environmental, biological and food samples have been reported. Due to the complexity of the samples, efficient sample pretreatment methods have been developed, which include mostly clean-up and preconcentration steps. On the other hand, among the analytical techniques used for their determination, high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled to ultraviolet (UV) or mass spectrometry (MS) detection is the most widely used, although capillary electrophoresis (CE) has also been employed in the last years, considering some improvements in sensitivity when coupling with new MS detectors. In this review, we present a critical overview of analytical methods based on HPLC and CE reported in the last decade, discussing relevant and innovative sample treatments for the analysis of environmental, food and biological samples.

Simple, fast and reliable CE method for simultaneous determination of ciprofloxacin and ofloxacin in human urine

A simple, fast, and accurate capillary zone electrophoresis method has been developed for the determination of ciprofloxacin and ofloxacin. This method uses liquid–liquid extraction. Therefore, it is characterized by a very simple procedure of sample preparation but at the same time satisfactory precision and accuracy. The extraction process of the same urine sample was repeated three times. The extraction protocol was performed each time for 15 min with 1 mL of dichloromethane and chloroform mixture in a 3:1 volume ratio. A 0.1 mol/L phosphate-borate buffer (pH 8.40) was selected as the background electrolyte. UV detection was performed at 288 nm. The separation was carried out at a voltage of 16 kV, at a temperature of 25 °C. Experimentally evaluated LOQ values for ciprofloxacin and ofloxacin were 0.2 nmol/mL urine and 0.05 nmol/mL urine, respectively. For both analytes the calibration curves exhibited linearity over the entire tested concentration range of 1–6 nmol/mL urine. The precision of the method did not exceed 15%, and the recovery was in the range of 85–115%. The developed and validated procedure was applied to analyze human urine for the content of ciprofloxacin and ofloxacin.

Simultaneous Determination of Ciprofloxacin and Ofloxacin in Animal Tissues with the Use of Capillary Electrophoresis with Transient Pseudo-Isotachophoresis

We have developed a precise and accurate method for the determination of ciprofloxacin and ofloxacin in meat tissues. Our method utilizes capillary electrophoresis with a transient pseudo-isotachophoresis mechanism and liquid–liquid extraction during sample preparation. For our experiment, a meat tissue sample was homogenized in pH 7.00 phosphate buffer at a ratio of 1:10 (tissue mass: buffer volume; g/mL). The extraction of each sample was carried out twice for 15 min with 600 µL of a mixture of dichloromethane and acetonitrile at a 2:1 volume ratio. We then conducted the electrophoretic separation at a voltage of 16 kV and a temperature of 25 °C using a background electrolyte of 0.1 mol/L phosphate–borate (pH 8.40). We used the UV detection at 288 nm. The experimentally determined LOQs for ciprofloxacin and ofloxacin were 0.27 ppm (0.8 nmol/g tissue) and 0.11 ppm (0.3 nmol/g tissue), respectively. The calibration curves exhibited linearity over the tested concentration range of 2 to 10 nmol/g tissue for both analytes. The relative standard deviation of the determination did not exceed 15%, and the recovery was in the range of 85–115%. We used the method to analyze various meat tissues for their ciprofloxacin and ofloxacin contents.

The Use of Single Drop Microextraction and Field Amplified Sample Injection for CZE Determination of Homocysteine Thiolactone in Urine

Two cheap, simple and reproducible methods for the electrophoretic determination of homocysteine thiolactone (HTL) in human urine have been developed and validated. The first method utilizes off-line single drop microextraction (SDME), whereas the second one uses off-line SDME in combination with field amplified sample injection (FASI). The off-line SDME protocol consists of the following steps: urine dilution with 0.2 mol/L, pH 8.2 phosphate buffer (1:2, v/v), chloroform addition, drop formation and extraction of HTL. The pre-concentration of HTL inside a separation capillary was performed by FASI. For sample separation, the 0.1 mol/L pH 4.75 phosphate buffer served as the background electrolyte, and HTL was detected at 240 nm. A standard fused-silica capillary (effective length 55.5 cm, 75 μm id) and a separation voltage of 21 kV (~99 μA) were used. Electrophoretic separation was completed within 7 min, whereas the LOD and LOQ for HTL were 0.04 and 0.1 μmol/L urine, respectively. The calibration curve in urine was linear in the range of 0.1-0.5 μmol/L, with R2 = 0.9991. The relative standard deviation of the points of the calibration curve varied from 2.4% to 14.9%. The intra- and inter-day precision and recovery were 6.4-10.2% (average 6.0% and 6.7%) and 94.9-102.7% (average 99.7% and 99.5%), respectively. The analytical procedure was successfully applied to the analysis of spiked urine samples obtained from apparently healthy volunteers.