Sensitive Chemiluminescence Assay for Patulin in Apple Juice by Flow Injection

Abstract

A sensitive chemiluminescence (CL) procedure for the determination of patulin by flow injection is described. It was found that patulin inhibits the CL generated from the luminol–dissolved oxygen system significantly. The decrement of chemiluminescence intensity was linear with the patulin concentration over the range from 0.04 to 10.0 ng mL⁻¹ with a detection limit of 0.01 ng mL⁻¹ (3σ_noise). At a flow rate of 2.0 mL min⁻¹, a complete analytical process could be performed within 0.5 min, including sampling and washing, with a relative standard deviation of less than 3.0% (n=5). The proposed method was applied successfully in the determination of patulin in apple juice, and the recovery was between 96.9% and 103.9%.

Keywords:

• Apple juice
• chemiluminescence
• flow injection
• luminol
• patulin

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from Shaanxi Province Nature Science Foundation and the Ministry of Education, China (grant no. 2006B05 and no. 04JK145).