Rapid europium-sensitized fluorescent determination of ulifloxacin, the active metabolite of prulifloxacin, in human serum and urine

A new fluorescent method was developed based on the ulifloxacin-europium (III)-sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate system for the determination of ulifloxacin, the active metabolite of prulifloxacin. Sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate formed a ternary complex with ulifloxacin-europium (III) and significantly enhaneed the characteristic fluorescence of europium (III). The enhanced fluorescence intensity showed a good linear relationship with the concentration of ulifloxacin in the range of 5.0 × 10−8 – 2.0 × 10−6M with a detection limit of 2.0 × 10−10 M (3σ). This method is rapid and sensitive, and has been successfully applied to the determination of ulifloxacin in human urine and serum samples.