Visual-test and Sorption-spectrophotometric Determination of Melamine in Biological Objects

Zaporozhets, O. A., Smyk, N. I., Rudakova, D. O. (2015). Visual-test and Sorption-spectrophotometric Determination of Melamine in Biological Objects. French-Ukrainian Journal of Chemistry, 3(2), 125–130. https://doi.org/10.17721/fujcV3I2P125-130

Melamine may have toxic effects on humans and animals. It is well known that melamine accumulates in the body and causes reproductive damages, forms bladder or kidney stones, which can lead to bladder cancer. Trace amounts of melamine at ppm levels may occur in certain food commodities due to its migration from melamine-containing disposable tableware plastics. It was intentionally adulterated to milk products to show a false increase in protein concentration. Considering these facts there is a need for establishing sensitive and reliable methods of melamine determination. As uncostly, rapid and selective melamine detection methods are highly required, the hyphenated sorption-spectrophotometric and visual test methods seem to be perspective candidates.In the present work the optimal conditions of sorption concentration of melamine from aqueous solutions ontо the silica gel surface were studied. The calibration graph for the sorption-spectrophotometric method is linear in 0.02 – 9.8 μmol.L-1 mg L-1 melamine concentration range. Proposed method allows naked-eye monitoring of biological samples.