Development of a high-performance liquid chromatography method for the simultaneous quantification of four organoarsenic compounds in the feeds of swine and chicken

A high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method with UV detection was developed for the simultaneous determination of arsanilic acid, roxarsone, nitarsone, and carbarsone in the feeds of swine and chicken. Feed samples were extracted with methanol/1% acetic acid (90:10, v/v) in an ultrasonic bath and the protein was precipitated with 2% Cu2SO4. The samples were further purified by solid phase extraction (SPE) on SAX cartridges. Separation was performed on a Zorbax SB-Aq C18 HPLC column using an isocratic procedure with methanol and 1% acetic acid (3:97, v/v) at a flow-rate of 0.7 mL min−1, and the UV detector was set at a wavelength of 260 nm. The recoveries of organoarsenic compounds spiked at levels of 2, 20 and 200 μg g−1 ranged from 81.2% to 91.3%; the inter-day relative standard deviation values were less than 7.0%. The limits of quantification for four organoarsenic compounds were 1.0–2.0 μg g−1. This simple and fast method could be applied to the determination of multi-residues of organic arsenic compounds in animal feeds.