A very simple high-performance liquid chromatographic method with fluorescence detection for the determination of gemifloxacin in human breast milk

A high-performance liquid chromatographic method with fluorescence detection was developed and validated for the determination of gemifloxacin in human breast milk. The proposed method allows the determination of gemifloxacin in breast milk samples without complex sample preparation. The samples were mixed with a mobile phase and filtered with a 0.45 µm polytetrafluoroethylene filter before analysis. Chromatographic separation was carried out on a C18 column (150 × 4.6 mm, 5 µm I.D.) using methanol:50 mM ortho-phosphoric acid solution (40:60) as the mobile phase with a 1.0 mL/min flow rate. Quantitation was performed using fluorescence detection with an excitation wavelength at 272 nm and an emission wavelength at 395 nm. The linear range was found to be 0.1-2.5 µg/mL. The method was applied successfully for the determination of gemifloxacin in breast milk obtained from a breastfeeding mother after oral administration of a single tablet that included 320 mg gemifloxacin per gemifloxacin tablet.