Ivermectin cleanup

For reliable identification of a residue, detailed information about the molecular structure of the analyte is essential. The total information about the molecular structure of the analyte is the sum of the information derived from each individual analytical step of tire method. Frequently used selective analytical steps based on chromatography or immunoaffinity, provide more or less general indirect information. For example, solid-phase extraction (SPE) cleanup followed by liquid chromatography/ultraviolet detection (LC/UV) has been suggested for screening and quantification of ivermectin residues in liver, but presumptive positive samples can be confirmed by derivatizing an aliquot of the SPE eluate and reanalyzing the fluorescent derivative of ivermectin in an LC-fluorescence system (17). 

Immunoaffinity chromatography cleanup has also been applied as an ideal and reliable strategy for residue analysis. Immunoaffinity columns prepared by coupling the antibodies to a cyanogen bromide-activated support were used to analyze avermectin BI residues in cattle tissues (359) and ivermectin in sheep serum (376). An immunoaffinity column prepared by an alternative activation/ coupling procedure with carbonyl diimidazole was also employed to analyze ivermectin residues in swine liver (361) since the earlier-reported methods did not work well in the analysis of this matrix. This recent work demonstrated the high specificity of tire antibody-mediated cleanup, but also showed that the immunoaffinity procedures could not always or completely eliminate matrix interference of samples. Therefore, application of additional cleanup steps before or after these procedures is often inevitable. 

Detection in liquid chromatography is mostly performed by fluorescence and/or ultraviolet absorption. In a few instances, electrochemical detection has also been employed (357, 368). For compounds that exhibit inherent intense fluorescence such as albendazole and metabolites (319, 320, 338, 355), closantel (344), and thiabendazole and metabolites (378), fluorometric detection is the preferred detection mode since it allows higher sensitivity. Compounds that do not fluoresce such as eprinomectin, moxidectin, and ivermectin, are usually converted to fluorescent derivatives prior to their injection into the liquid chromatographic analytical column. The derivatization procedure commonly applied for this group of compounds includes reaction with trifluoroacetic anhydride in presence of A-methylimidazole as a base catalyst in acetonitrile (346, 347, 351, 352, 366, 369, 372-374). The formation of the fluorophore is achieved in 30 s at 25 C and results in a very stable derivative of ivermectin and moxidectin (353) but a relatively unstable derivative of eprinomectin (365). However, the derivatized extracts are not pure enough, so that their injection dramatically shortens the life of the liquid chromatographic column unless a silica solid-phase extraction cleanup is finally applied. 

The parent compounds and the metabolites have very low aqueous, solubility. They have proven difficult to extract from some matrices the current method for ivermectin involves some 41 concentration and clean-up steps preceding HPLC (8). A Merck method for recovering abamectin residues from strawberries and formation of fluorescent derivatives for HPLC analysis has 18 separate steps (9). A recently published two-step solid-phase recovery procedure for ivermectin from serum indicates that it is possible to combine an abbreviated concentration and cleanup method with a sensitive and specific detection system in this case, liquid chromatography (10). An immunoassay for avermectins that could be interfaced with simplified residue recovery protocols is a promising solution to the intensifying demands on regulatory agencies to monitor these compounds. 

Anthelmintics The major classes of anthelmintics, or antiparasitic drugs, are benzimidazoles and mac-rocyclic lactones (avermectins and milbemycins). USDA/FSIS have approved a method based on LC/ fluorescence detection for determination of the anthelmintics albendazole and ivermectin in tissues (albendazole extracted with ethyl acetate and cleanup... 

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