Development of a vortex oscillating clean-up column for high-throughput semi-automatic sample preparation of drug residues in fish muscle tissues

A novelty high-throughput semi-automatic sample clean-up method was developed and used for rapid analysis of 9 drug residues in fish muscle tissues combined with high-performance liquid chromatography/quadrupole-linear ion trap mass spectrometry (HPLC-QTRAP-MS/MS). The target compounds were extracted by Quick, Easy, Cheap, Effective, Rugged and Safe multiresidue (QuEChERS) method with acetonitrile. A vortex oscillating clean-up column was proposed for single step purification firstly. After centrifugation, 1 mL of acetonitrile layer was transferred into a 3 mL vortex oscillating clean-up column which packed with 150 mg C18 sorbent. The column was covered with piston, placed on a column-tube rack, vigorously agitated on a multi-tube vortex mixer. After vortex oscillation, purified extract was obtained for analysis by pushing the piston of oscillating clean-up column. The performance of the developed method was validated by analyzing 9 analytes in spiked grass carp muscle tissues. The limits of quantification (LOQs) ranged from 1.0 to 5.0 μg kg−1. The recoveries were in the range of 101–119% at the four concentration levels (2.0, 5.0, 10.0, 20.0 μg kg−1). Inter-day and intra-day relative standard deviations (RSDs) were lower than 16% for all analytes.