Sensitive determination of ethopabate residues in chicken tissues by liquid chromatography with fluorometric detection.

A liquid chromatographic (LC) method is described for determination of ethopabate residues in chicken tissues. The drug is extracted from tissues with acetonitrile, and the extract is concentrated to 2-3 mL. This aqueous solution is rinsed with ethyl acetate and cleaned up by Florisil column chromatography. LC analysis is carried out on a Zorbax ODS column, and ethopabate is quantitated by using a fluorometric detector set at 306 nm (excitation) and 350 nm (emission). Recoveries of ethopabate added to chicken tissues at levels of 0.01 and 0.05 ppm were 87.8 and 92.7%, respectively. The detection limit was 100 pg for ethopabate standard, and 0.5 ppb in chicken tissues.