Validation of a Chiral Liquid Chromatographic Method for the Degradation Behavior of Flumequine Enantiomers in Mariculture Pond Water

In this work, flumequine (FLU) enantiomers were separated using a Chiralpak OD‐H column, with n‐hexane‐ethanol (20:80, v/v) as the mobile phase at a flow rate of 0.6 mL/min. Solid phase extraction (SPE) was used for cleanup and enrichment. The limit of detection, limit of quantitation, linearity, precision, and intra/interday variation of the chiral high‐performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method were determined. The developed method was then applied to investigate the degradation behavior of FLU enantiomers in mariculture pond water samples. The results showed that the degradation of FLU enantiomers under natural, sterile, or dark conditions was not enantioselective. Chirality 28:649–655, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.