Abstract
A quick and cost-effective method to analyze leafy vegetable nitrate on spectrometry was developed and compared with a standard method using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). This method was designed to use ion-exchange solid phase extraction (SPE) cartridges in reducing interference from organic matrices to meet the criterion of an existing method for analyzing nitrate in wastewater. Nine vegetables (bok coy, cabbage, celery, Chinese cabbage, Chinese kale, lettuce, mustard green, pak choi, and water spinach) were selected for the method testing with three replicates being conducted for each vegetable. The nitrate contents ranged from 800 to 4,300 μg/g, with bok coy, celery, and pak choi being the highest. Data derived from spectrometry and HPLC were close to each other with most relative errors being within ±10% and were highly correlated with an R square value of 0.969. Stability testing and spike analysis resulted in a mean coefficient of variation lower than 6% and a mean recovery rate of 83.7%, suggesting reliability of the method. In addition, both the cost and time consumption for using this method were lower than the standard method using HPLC or ion chromatography, making this spectrometric method a good alternative for analysis of leafy vegetable nitrate.
Highlights
Nitrate, ubiquitously present in the environment as one of the components in the nitrogen cycle, is an essential nutrient to the growth of vegetables
We developed a quick and cost-effective method for analyzing leafy vegetable nitrate by modifying a spectrometric method used for analysis of nitrate in wastewater (NIEA W419.51A) [24]
After the ion-exchange solid phase extraction (SPE) treatment, all sample solutions analyzed on spectrometry successfully met the criterion of availability, which was twofold of the absorbance at 275 nm smaller than 10% of the absorbance at 220 nm
Summary
Ubiquitously present in the environment as one of the components in the nitrogen cycle, is an essential nutrient to the growth of vegetables. International Journal of Analytical Chemistry chromatography (HPLC) [17,18,19,20], and capillary electrophoresis [21,22,23] These methods are good at analyzing nitrate and nitrite in foodstuff simultaneously with accuracy and precision, but the analyses either involve use of toxic substances or are relatively costly. Because of nearly no or little nitrite detected from leafy vegetables [15, 17], a method that focuses on vegetable nitrate with similar accuracy and precision plus cost effectiveness would be an excellent replacement. We developed a quick and cost-effective method for analyzing leafy vegetable nitrate by modifying a spectrometric method used for analysis of nitrate in wastewater (NIEA W419.51A) [24]. Data derived from analysis using this method were close to that using a standard HPLC method, indicating that this modified method could be a good alternative for analysis of nitrate in leafy vegetables
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