Rapid Determination of Tetracyclines in Drinking and Environmental Waters Using Fully Automatic Solid-Phase Extraction with Ultra-Performance Liquid Chromatography–Tandem Mass Spectrometry

Abstract

The abuse and irrational use of tetracyclines (TCs) in human medicine and animal husbandry has become a serious concern, affecting the ecological environment and human health. The aim of this study was to develop a sensitive and selective method using fully automatic solid-phase extraction coupled with ultra-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry for the determination of twelve TCs in water. Four isotope-labeled internal standards for TCs were used to correct matrix effects. Several parameters affecting extraction efficiency were systematically optimized, and the optimum experimental conditions found were 1.0 L water sample with 0.5 g/L Na2EDTA (pH 3.0) extracted and enriched by CNW HLB cartridge and eluted by 4 mL of acetone:methanol (v/v, 1:1). The enrichment factors were up to 798−1059 but only requiring about 60 min per six samples. Under the optimized conditions, the linearity of the method ranged from 0.2 to 100 μg/L for 12 TCs, the detection limits were as low as 0.01−0.15 ng/L, and the recoveries were in the range of 70%–118%, with relative standard deviations less than 15%. The developed method can be successfully utilized for the determination of 12 TCs in pure water, tap water, river water, and mariculture seawater. In summary, three and six TCs were detected in river water and mariculture seawater, respectively, with total concentrations of 0.074–0.520 ng/L (mean 0.248 ng/L) and 0.792–58.369 ng/L (12.629 ng/L), respectively. Tetracycline (TC) and oxytetracycline (OTC) were the dominant TCs in river water, while doxytetracycline (DXC) and OTC were dominant in mariculture seawater.