Maejo International Journal of Science and Technology (Feb 2008)
Spectrophotometric flow-injection analysis assay of tetracycline antibiotics using a dual light-emitting diode based detector
Abstract
In this paper, a small dual light-emitting diode (LED)-based detector for FIA process analyser has been designed. The detector’s optical parts comprise a flow-through cell, a dual-blue LED and a photodiode. Neither mirrors nor lenses are used. The optical path for the first LED detects the blank, while the other LED detects the sample. The detector’s electronic components including a signal amplifier and an A/D converter are integrated on one small board connected to a PC for measuring the results. The designed spectrophotometric detector was used for the determination of tetracycline antibiotics. Uranyl acetate was used as a reagent forming orange-red complexes with the drugs in N,N– dimethylformamide. The complexes show absorption maxima at 410, 416 and 408 nm for tetracycline hydrochloride (TCH), chlortetracycline hydrochloride (CTCH), and doxycycline hydrochloride (DCH), respectively. The detection limit was found to be 0.38, 0.75, 1.44 µg mL-1 and the linear range was obtained at 1.0-3.0, 3.0-5.0, and 3.0-10.0 µg mL-1 for TCH, CTCH and DCH, respectively. The proposed method has been successfully applied to the determination of tetracycline antibiotic residues in milk samples. Moreover, this method is an environmentally friendly approach and suitable for routine analysis.
