Spectrophotometric Determination of Carbadox in Swine Feeds
Abstract The assay method is applicable to samples containing 0.00110-0.0606% carbadox (methyl 3-(2-quinoxalinylmethylene)carbazate - N1, N4-dioxide) (10–550 g/ton). Carbadox is leached from the sample with chloroform-methanol (3+1), followed by a series of solvent-solvent extractions, column chromatography, and finally the spectrophotometric measurement of the carbadox content of the final solution at 420 nm. This treatment of the feed or feed supplement sample serves to isolate the carbadox from materials that might interfere in the spectrophotometric measurement. The method of standard addition compensates for a feed or feed supplement matrix effect in the assay. A water pretreatment step improves recovery of drug from pelleted feeds. Assay results for feeds and feed supplements that were prepared under carefully controlled conditions showed good agreement between the amounts of carbadox added and found. Multiple assay values for feeds containing 0.00551% carbadox exhibited a coefficient of variation of about 5%. Assay results for commercial feed and feed supplement samples indicated that the assay method is applicable to a wide variety of feeds and feed supplements.