Background: Clenbuterol (salbutamol), which increases muscle mass and decreases adipose tissue, is misused as a nutrient-repartitioning agent in livestock. In this paper a new sensitive method for determining clenbuterol in livestock is presented. The novelty of this approach is the separation and determination of salbutamol enantiomers with marked quantitative merits.
Results: Four proton di-ionisable Nano-baskets, namely 5,11,17,23-tetrakis(1,1-dimethylethyl)-25,26-bis(carboxy-methoxy)calix[4]arene-27,28-crown-3, -crown-4, -crown-5 and -crown-6 in the cone conformation, were synthesised and used to prepare bonded phases for high-performance liquid chromatography separation. The new synthesised bonded phases were characterised and optimised. The bonding interactions of solute/bonded phases were examined and the main interactions are reported.
Conclusion: The clenbuterol levels in six samples of livestock meat (pork, pork casing, beef, beef casing, mutton and mutton casing) were analysed and the results revealed that for the best bonded phases the limits of detection and quantitation were 0.06 and 0.2 µg mL(-1) respectively.
Copyright © 2012 Society of Chemical Industry.