Iran-Made Optical Sensor Measures Antibiotic in Milk
“The wide use of antibiotics to prevent and treat diseases in livestock has made reducing the risk of their residues in food particularly important and florfenicol is known as an important drug in controlling respiratory infections in cattle,” said Qadir Rajabzadeh, the head of the Research Institute of Food Sciences and Industries.
“In this research, a new sensor for measuring florfenicol in milk samples was presented. Carbon dots are used to make this sensor whose special feature is strong and stable emission of fluorescence,” he added.
“Also, to improve the selective performance of the sensor, the surface of carbon nanoparticles was modified with a layer of molecularly molded polymer which causes the florfenicol molecule to be selectively absorbed on the surface of nanoparticles, thus reducing the interference of other species,” Rajabzadeh said.
Noting that fluorescence quenching occurs in the sensor during the interaction of carbon nanomaterials with the target molecule (fluorophenicol), he said, “In optimal conditions, a linear decrease in the fluorescence intensity of carbon particles is observed in the concentration range of 3-150 μM florfenicol, and the detection limit of the proposed method is 1.1 μM.”
Also, earlier this year, researchers at an Iranian knowledge-based company developed a kit to detect harmful and excessive anti-biotic in milk.
“Kits to quickly detect anti-biotic in milk, which is used in the dairy industry, are one of the achievements of this knowledge -based company,” said Roya Mirzayee, one of the researchers that developed the kit at the Iranian knowledge-based firm.
A lot of antibiotics are used to treat while dairy cattle in sick, but the antibiotics will be residues in the raw milk. There are some rapid test for easy detection using special kits.
“These kits are used in the dairy industry to measure the volume of antibiotics in milk,” she added.
Mirzayee noted that their manufactured kit is capable of measuring and detecting tetracycline and Beta-lactams in milk, adding, “If the volume of these two antibiotics in milk is high, it will cause the fermentation not to take place and as a result it causes damage to the dairy industry.”
She went on to say that the kit could also be used at home by households.
4155/v
