An optimized SPE-LC-MS/MS method for antibiotics residue analysis in ground, surface and treated water samples by response surface methodology- central composite design

Background Antibiotic residues are being constantly identified in environmental waters at low concentration. Growing concern has been expressed over the adverse environmental and human health effects even at low concentration. Hence, it is crucial to develop a multi-residues analytical method for antibiotics to generate a considerable dataset which are necessary in the assessment of aquatic toxicity of environmental waters for aquatic organisms and human health. This work aimed to develop a reliable and sensitive multi-residue method based on high performance liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole-linear ion trap tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS-MS). The method was optimized and validated for simultaneous determination of four classes of antibiotics including, β-lactam, macrolide, fluoroquinolone and nitro-imidazole in treated, ground and surface water matrices.