Use of experimental design and effective mobility calculations to develop a method for the determination of antimicrobials by capillary electrophoresis

A capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) method for the determination of chloramphenicol (CLP), danofloxacin (DANO), ciprofloxacin (CIPRO), enrofloxacin (ENRO), sulfamethazine (SMZ), sulfaquinoxaline (SQX) and sulfamethoxazole (SMX) is described. For the development, the effective mobilities were estimated and a central composite design was performed. The method was in-house validated for CLP, CIPRO, ENRO and SMX determination in pharmaceuticals. In comparison with the HPLC method recommended by the United States Pharmacopoeia, this CZE method exhibited the same performance, with the advantage that seven different antimicrobials in pharmaceutical formulations could be simultaneously determined.