Colorimetric analyzer based on mobile phone camera for determination of available phosphorus in soil.

A field deployable colorimetric analyzer based on an "Android mobile phone" was developed for the determination of available phosphorus content in soil. An inexpensive mobile phone embedded with digital camera was used for taking photograph of the chemical solution under test. The method involved a reaction of the phosphorus (orthophosphate form), ammonium molybdate and potassium antimonyl tartrate to form phosphomolybdic acid which was reduced by ascorbic acid to produce the intense colored molybdenum blue. The software program was developed to use with the phone for recording and analyzing RGB color of the picture. A light tight box with LED light to control illumination was fabricated to improve precision and accuracy of the measurement. Under the optimum conditions, the calibration graph was created by measuring blue color intensity of a series of standard phosphorus solution (0.0-1.0mgPL(-1)), then, the calibration equation obtained was retained by the program for the analysis of sample solution. The results obtained from the proposed method agreed well with the spectrophotometric method, with a detection limit of 0.01mgPL(-1) and a sample throughput about 40h(-1) was achieved. The developed system provided good accuracy (RE<5%) and precision (RSD<2%, intra- and inter-day), fast and cheap analysis, and especially convenient to use in crop field for soil analysis of phosphorus nutrient.

An automated sequential injection spectrophotometric method for evaluation of tyramine oxidase inhibitory activity of some flavonoids.

An automated sequential injection (SI) spectrophotometric system has been developed for evaluation of tyramine oxidase (TOD) inhibitory activity. The method is based on the inhibition of TOD that catalyzes the oxidation of tyramine substrate to produce aldehyde and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). The produced H2O2 reacts with vanillic acid and 4-aminoantipyrine (4-AA) in the presence of peroxidase (POD) to form a quinoneimine dye, the absorbance of which is measured of absorbance at wavelength of 490 nm. The decrease of the quinoneimine dye is related to an increase of TOD inhibitory activity. Under the optimum conditions: 1.0 mM tyramine, 8 U mL(-1) TOD, 1.0 mM vanillic acid, 1.0 mM 4-AA and delay time of 10 s, some flavonoid compounds were examined for the TOD inhibitory activity expressed as IC50 value. It was found that flavonols (quercetin and myricetin) and flavans (epicatechin gallate (ECG) and epigallocatechin (EGC)) showed higher TOD inhibitory activity than flavones and flavanones. The results of IC50 values obtained from the proposed method and a batch-wise method were not significantly different from each other. Moreover, the SI system enabled automation of the analysis, leading to more convenient, more sensitive and faster analysis than the batch-wise method. A precise timing of the system also improves precision and accuracy of the assay, especially when the measurement of absorbance at non-steady state condition is involved.

Sequential injection spectrophotometric system for evaluation of mushroom tyrosinase-inhibitory activity.

A sequential injection (SI) spectrophotometric method with absorbance detection at 475 nm has been developed for evaluating activity of some compounds on an inhibition of the mushroom tyrosinase. The method involved a reaction of 3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (L-DOPA) and mushroom tyrosinase to form the o-dopaquinone. The decrease of the o-dopaquinone was related to an increase of tyrosinase-inhibitory activity. Under the optimum conditions (concentration and volume of L-DOPA and mushroom tyrosinase of 2.0 mM, 60 µL and 142 U mL(-1), 15 µL, respectively), some antioxidant compounds were examined for the tyrosinase-inhibitory activity. A batch enzymatic assay of tyrosinase-inhibitory activity was applied as the reference method for comparison. The results of IC(50) values obtained from the proposed method and the batch method were correlated well, with r(2) of 0.969. The SIA provides higher precision and degrees of automation, consumes smaller amounts of chemicals and it is simpler and faster than the batch method.