Abstract: A high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method was developed for the simultaneous determination of 16 benzimidazoles residues in animal tissue. Animal tissue samples were extracted with ethyl acetate-50% potassium hydroxide-1% BHT (20:0.15:1, V/V) , followed by treatment with n-hexane for defatting and further clean-up on MCX solid phase (SPE) cartridge. The chromatographic separation was performed on a C18 column with a mobile phase consisting of acetonitrile and 0.025 mol/L ammonium acetate solution at a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min by gradient elution. Detection wavelength was set at 292 nm, and the quantitation method used was external standard method. The calibration curves of 16 benzimidazoles exhibited good linearity over a concentration range from 0.025 to 1.0 mg/L, with correlation coefficients above 0.99. The average recoveries for 16 benzimidazoles in meat and liver tissues from three different animal species ranged from 81.6% to 110% at spike levels of 10, 50μg/mL and 100μg/mL, and the relative standard deviations were between 1.8% and 13.1% (n = 10). The limit of quantification was 10μg/kg. This method is sensitive, reproducible and suitable for the determination of benzimidazoles in animal tissue.

Key words: high performance liquid chromatography, animal tissue, benzimidazoles