Ultrasensitive Assay of Gatifloxacin at Picogram Level Based on its Enhancing Effect on the Myoglobin‐Luminol Chemiluminescence Reaction

Abstract

Picogram‐level gatifloxacin was determined based on its significantly catalyzed effect on myoglobin‐luminol chemiluminescence (CL) reaction in the flow injection system. The enhanced chemiluminescence intensity was linear with gatifloxacin concentration in the range from 50 ngl⁻¹–10 µg l⁻¹ (r²=0.9995), and the detection limit was 20 ng l⁻¹ (3σ). At a flow rate of 2.0 ml min⁻¹ for each line, a complete analytical process could be performed within 0.5 min, including sampling and washing, with a relative standard deviation of less than 4.0% (n=7). The proposed method was applied successfully in the determination of gatifloxacin in tablets, human serum and urine samples with the recovery from 97.4–104.5%.

Keywords:

• Gatifloxacin
• luminal
• myoglobin
• chemiluminescence
• flow‐injection

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from Shaanxi Province Nature Science Foundation and Ministry of Education, China, Grant No. 2006B05 and No. 04Jk145