Synthesis of molecularly imprinted microspheres and development of a fluorescence method for detection of chloramphenicol in meat

In this study, nitrobenzene was used as dummy template to synthesize a type of specific molecularly imprinted microspheres for chloramphenicol, and 4-nitroaniline was coupled with three fluorophores to synthesize three fluorescent tracers. Then a competitive fluorescence method was developed on a conventional microplate for detection of chloramphenicol in chicken and pork samples. This method contained only one sample-loading step, so one assay was finished within 30 min. The IC 50 was 1.8 ng/ml, and the limit of detection was 0.06 ng/g. The recoveries from chloramphenicol-fortified blank meat samples were in the range 67.5–96.2%. Furthermore, this method could be recycled three times. The detection results for some real meat samples were identical to that of a LC–MS/MS method. Therefore, this method could be used as a practical tool for routine screening for the residue of chloramphenicol in large number of meat samples.