Highly sensitive determination of sulfite in biological and environmental samples using HPLC-NAM Fluorometry
Masato Yamaguchi Department of Health Sciences, Tohoku Fukushi University, Sendai, 981-8522 Japan
Abstract:
A highly sensitive assay of sulfite in biological and environmental samples has been developed by HPLC with N-(9-acridinyl)maleimide (NAM) Fluorometry. Sulfite reacted with NAM, a Michael addition reaction, to give strongly fluorescent derivatives at temperatures ranging from room temperature to 50 degree centigrade. There was no interference by the inorganic salts, cations and anions nor by the reducing, oxidizing and organic substances present in wine, beer, rain, snow, sediment and blood serum. The sensitivities were in the pmol range using ODS column in high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The sample size could be reduced to less than 1/10,000 by the NAM method compared with the conventional method. The good recovery was obtained by using the buffer solution containing ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) and deoxygenated redistilled water.
