Simultaneous Determination of Active Clinical Components of Teicoplanin and Ramoplanin in Environmental Water by LC-MS/MS Coupled With Cascade Elution

Abstract

A simple, sensitive, and simultaneous method was established and validated for the active clinical components of teicoplanin and ramoplanin in environmental water by LC-MS/MS coupled with cascade elution. Moreover, a cascade elution method, which was rapid, solvent-less, and high-extraction efficient was successfully proposed to realize the extraction and purification of seven targets in one step. Under optimized conditions, the method showed excellent linearity with the correlation coefficient (R2) ≥0.998 in the range of 1.0–100.0 ng L−1. Low matrix effects and good recoveries which ranged from 86 to 114% were reached with RSDs lower than 3.0% for most targets. The limits of detection and limit of quantification were 0.1–1.3 and 0.3–4.0 ng L−1, respectively. This method was successfully applied for the determination of teicoplanin and ramoplanin in water samples from the Pearl River and the South China Sea. TA2-2,3 was quantified in only one sample with the concentration of 8.0 ng L−1.