title: A sensitive fluorimetric method for the determination of epinephrine.
abstract: A sensitive fluorimetric method for the determination of epinephrine (E) is described in this paper. The experiments indicate that epinephrine can react with formaldehyde (HCHO) in an acid medium to form a condensation product, which can be oxidized by potassium hexacyanoferrate(III) (K3[Fe(CN)6]) in borax buffer (pH = 9.5). The reaction product can emit strong fluorescence. Ascorbic acid (AA) is used in order to consume excess potassium hexacyanoferrate and stabilize the fluorescent product. Under optimum conditions, a linear relationship has been obtained between the fluorescence intensity and the concentration of epinephrine in the range of 1.4 x 10(-9) - 2.1 x 10(-6) mol/l, and the detection limit is 2.4 x 10(-10) mol/l (4.3 x 10(-11) g/ml, S/N = 3). The method is applied for the determination of E in both actual sample and the synthetic sample with E and norepinephrine (NE) by using the coupling technique of synchronous fluorimetry and H-point standard addition method, and the results obtained are satisfactory.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Colloid and Interface Chemistry, Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan 250100, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Yumei
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.forename: Jinghe
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Xia
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Aiqin
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Du
mesh_terms: D001205:Ascorbic Acid / Q000737:chemistry; D002021:Buffers; D004837:Epinephrine / Q000032:analysis*; D005292:Ferricyanides / Q000737:chemistry; D005557:Formaldehyde / Q000737:chemistry; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D010084:Oxidation-Reduction; D012015:Reference Standards; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013050:Spectrometry, Fluorescence / Q000379:methods*; D013696:Temperature
chemical_list: D002021:Buffers; D005292:Ferricyanides; D005557:Formaldehyde; D001205:Ascorbic Acid; C028033:potassium ferricyanide; D004837:Epinephrine