Determination of cefotaxime, desacetylcefotaxime, cefmenoxime and ceftizoxime in biological samples by fluorescence detection after separation by thin-layer chromatography

Abstract

Cephalosporins bearing an aminothiazole group conjugated with a methoxyimino group give a strong fluorescence on a silica gel plate with a fluorescence indicator after development with an acidic mobile phase. A sensitive thin-layer chromatographic method based on this property has been developed for the determination of cefotaxime, desacetylcefotaxime, cefmenoxime and ceftizoxime. The detection limits and reliability of the proposed procedure allow the method to be used for the determination of these cephalosporins in therapeutic monitoring.