Liquid chromatographic determination of erythromycin residue in chicken tissue samples after an optimized coacervative extraction

Erythromycin is a medium-spectrum macrolide antibiotic used exclusively in veterinary medicine for the treatment of a wide range of infections [1]. The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a method to determine erythromycin residues in edible tissues of meat. In this study, a coacervative extraction method was designed and optimized for extraction of erythromycin residues, prior to their liquid chromatographic analysis. Coacervative extraction is a sample preparation technique which uses reversed micelle aggregates (vesicles) as extraction phase [2]. Proposed method is water induced coacervative extraction. Capric acid in THF as a surfactant is responsible for vesicle formation. A central composite design was used for multivariate optimization of the effects of five different parameters influencing the extraction efficiency of the method. Capric acid weight and V/V % of THF, pH and extraction time were optimized. Salt addition has not considerable effect on extraction yield. The proposed method was successfully applied for determination of erythromycin residue in chicken meat tissues. Analysis was performed using liquid chromatography with ultraviolet detection.