Chemiluminescence Determination of Tetracyclines via Aluminum Sensitized Fluorescence

Tetracycline, oxytetracycline, doxycycline, and chlortetracycline have been determined by chemiexcitation of the corresponding Al(III) highly fluorescent complex from the permanganate or cerium(IV)-sulphite chemiluminogenic reactions. Limits of detection and ranges of linearity are equal to 0.024, 0.015, 0.014, and 0.050 mu gmL-1 and 0.067-3.20, 0.042-1.70, 0.042-3.00, and 0.103-2.80 mu gmL-1 for tetracycline, oxytetracycline, doxycycline, and chlortetracycline, respectively. Average recovery of tetracyclines from solutions of commercial formulations was equal to 99.8% and the procedure was successfully applied to the determination of tetracyclines in commercial products with mean relative error equal to 3.4% (range 1.4-5.0%).