Development and validation of an analytical method for the simultaneous quantification of ofloxacin, norfloxacin and ciprofloxacin in human urine

Treatment processes have been the focus of studies aiming at promoting the removal of drugs in human urine in order to ensure environmental safety using it as a fertilizer in agriculture. So, an HPLC-FD method for the simultaneous determination of ofloxacin, norfloxacin and ciprofloxacin in human urine was developed and validated. The proposed method describes an efficient alternative for the determination of fluoroquinolone residues by eliminating the clean-up step. Moreover, the proposed method proved to be selective, with good linearity (r>0.99), sensitivity, accuracy (80% to 107%) and repeatability. This method shows to be suitable for routine analyses (simple, low price and using a small volume of solvents) for ecological approaches.