Determination of oxfendazole in cow milk by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography.

A specific and sensitive high-performance liquid chromatographic method for the analysis of oxfendazole in cow milk is described. Oxfendazole was extracted from milk using a mixture of acetone and chloroform under alkaline conditions. The solvents were evaporated, and the oily residue was purified by hexane-acetonitrile partition and acid-base extraction. The residue obtained after cleanup was redissolved in methanol for chromatographic analysis. Chromatography was performed on a reversed-phase column with acetonitrile-water as the mobile phase. As low as 0.005 microgram of oxfendazole/g can be measured by this method using 50 g of milk. The method was applied to measure oxfendazole in the milk of a cow given an oral 5-mg/kg dose.