Abstract: A method of liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS/MS) for the simultaneous determination of five antiviral drug residues, amantadine, rimantadine, memantine, moroxydine and imiquimod in chicken tissues was developed. The compounds were extracted from the samples with trichloroacetic acid solution and acetonitrile, and then cleaned-up by strong cation exchange (SCX) solid phase extraction cartridges. The analytes were separated on a Xamide column (100 mm×2.1 mm, 5 μm) and determined qualitatively and quantitatively with tandem mass spectrometry using positive polarity mode under multi-reaction monitoring (MRM) scan type. The limits of detection and the limits of quantification were 0.06~0.30 μg/kg and 0.2~1.0 μg/kg, respectively. The average recoveries of the five drugs were 72.3%~94.2% in chicken muscle and 70.8%~92.7% in chicken livers. The relative standard deviations (RSDs) in chicken muscle and livers were 3.5%~11.3% and 5.3%~12.6%, respectively. The method is selective without interference and suitable for the determination and confirmation of the five antiviral drugs in chicken muscle and livers.

Key words: antiviral drugs, chicken livers, chicken muscle, multi-residue determination, liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS/MS)