st. Petersburg University have developed an automated method for detecting fluoroquinolone antibiotics in liquids that may be harmful to human health. The method has been tested on milk, shrimp and sewage. This was reported to socialbites.ca at St Petersburg University.
Fluoroquinolones are the most common type of synthetic antibiotics with a broad spectrum of activity. For a long time, such antibiotics were thought to be harmless, but now scientists have doubts about it because of their serious side effects: arterial thrombosis, cartilage erosion of the supporting joints, colitis, life-threatening bleeding and even death. Today, there is a debate on the necessity of stricter control of the use of these antibiotics in pharmacology, food industry and agriculture.
The essence of the method developed at St.Petersburg State University is the selective and efficient removal (extraction) of antibiotics from the studied object. This is done with the help of eutectic solvents, which are safe and highly effective solvents of the new generation. After extraction, the solvent phase from which the fluoroquinolones are separated is analyzed using liquid chromatography (a method of separating and analyzing mixtures of substances).
“The method showed not only high efficiency, but also high sensitivity. It allows you to determine even trace concentrations of these substances. Analytical Chemistry Department employee Irina Timofeeva told socialbites.ca, “In addition, this method reduces labor costs and eliminates the human factor. It can be quite easily automated according to the principles of flow analysis methods that leverage
St Petersburg University scientists tested their method on three different objects of analysis: milk, shrimp and wastewater. The method has proven to be effective.
In the future, this technology can be widely used, especially in the food industry, where today the chromatograph is one of the most popular instruments.