Abstract: A high-performance capillary electrophoresis with electrochemical detection (CE-ED) method has been applied for the determination of β-agonists, clenbuterol and salbutamol, in meat products. The effects of several factors such as the acidity and concentration of running buffer, the separation voltage, the applied potential and the injection time on CE-ED were investigated. Under the optimum conditions, these two components can be separated within 8 min at the separation voltage of 18 kV in a 40 mmol/L borax running buffer (pH 7.4). A 300 μm diameter carbon disk electrode was used as the working electrode positioned carefully opposite the outlet of the capillary in a wall-jet configuration at potential of +950 mV (vs. SCE). The response of clenbuterol and salbutamol was linear over two orders of magnitude with the detection limits (S/N=3) of 1.11×10-7 and 9.8×10-8 mol/L, respectively, and ascorbic acid does not interfere with the detection. The method has been successfully applied to analyze β-agonists in real-life samples, and the assay results were satisfactory.

Key words: electrochemical detection, β-agonist, clenbuterol, salbutamol, capillary Electrophoresis, electrochemical detection, β-agonist, clenbuterol, salbutamol