Development of a simultaneous multi-residue analysis for screening and confirmation of 7 veterinary drugs in bovine milk by LC-MSMS

A simple and fast analytical method based on liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry was developed for detection of the veterinary drugs acetanilide, anthranilic acid, antipyrine, cyproheptadine, diphenhydramine, DLmethylephedrine, and phenacetin in bovine milk. The target analytes were extracted from milk samples by using acetonitrile followed by clean-up with C18 and liquid-liquid purification with saturated n-hexane. A reverse-phase analytical column was employed with a mobile phase comprising (A) 0.1% formic acid in distilled water and (B) 0.1% formic acid in acetonitrile to achieve the best chromatographic separation. Matrix-matched calibration curves (r2 ≥ 0.9986) were constructed using six concentrations (1, 2, 5, 10, 20, and 40 μg/kg) of drugs in the milk matrix. Recoveries at three drug-spiking levels (5, 10, and 20 μg/kg) ranged from 71.2% to 103.8% with intra-day and inter-day relative standard deviation (RSD) values of ≤ 8.6%. The calculated limits of quantification (LOQ) were 0.19-7.1 μg/kg.