Chemiluminescence screening assay for diethylstilbestrol in meat

A simple, rapid, and sensitive flow injection method with chemiluminescence detection was developed for the screening of meat samples containing diethylstilbestrol, based on the enhancement by diethylstilbestrol of the cerium(IV)-rhodamine 6G chemiluminescence system in sulfuric acid medium. Under the optimal conditions, the chemiluminescence intensity was linear for the diethylstilbestrol concentration in four types of meat (chicken, beef, mutton, and pork) matrix, with the linear ranges of CL detection more than three orders of magnitude and the detection limits (3σ) in the range 0.75–1.12 pg/mL. The relative standard deviations for intra-day and inter-day precision were less than 3.0%. The proposed method was found to be highly reliable for screening purpose and successfully applied to the screening of diethylstilbestrol residue in four types of meat samples, with the good quantitative recoveries for the different concentration levels varied from 93.1% to 104.5%. The mechanism of this chemiluminescence reaction has also been proposed.