Spectrofluorimetric analysis of menbutone in veterinary formulations: Application to residue determination in bovine meat and milk

Abstract

A simple, rapid, and sensitive spectroflourimetric method was developed for the determination of menbutone. The method is based on measuring the native fluorescence of the alkaline aqueous methanolic solution of the cited drug at its optimum excitation and emission wavelengths at λ_em 378 nm, upon excitation at λ_ex 300 nm. The method showed good linearity over the range of 0.2-2.0 µg/mL with a detection and quantitation limits of 7.25 and 24.15 ng/mL, respectively. The suggested method was successfully applied to the analysis of menbutone in its commercial veterinary formulations and the results obtained were in good agreement with those given with the manufacturer method. The method was further extended to the determination of menbutone residues in bovine meat and milk, and the results were satisfactory. The recoveries obtained were in the 98.50-102.25% range. No organic solvents were used in the extraction procedures, therefore, the proposed method can be considered as a type of 'green' chemical process.