ISSN: 0022-1198
CODEN: JFSCA
Published Online: 1 April 1977
Page Count: 3

Spectrophotometric Determination of Cyanide in Biological Materials
Stolman, A
Chief toxicologist, University of Connecticut School of Medicine, Conn.

Pranitis, PAF
Toxicological chemist, Conn.

(Received 28 July 1976; accepted 14 October 1976)

Abstract

The analytical methods currently used for the determination of cyanide in biological materials are the aeration method with the Prussian blue (ferricyanide) reaction [1] and some microdiffusion methods [2,3]. The methods are dependent on color reactions, the procedures are either time-consuming or cumbersome, and the results are of questionable accuracy. A method using the ultraviolet light absorption characteristics of a cyanonickelate complex was developed by Scoggins [4] for the accurate identification and quantitation of cyanide in aqueous solution. This method was found to be readily adaptable for the determination of cyanide in biofluids and tissues. The resulting cyanide-nickel complex which formed rapidly was found to be stable and could be quantitated readily. This paper presents a method to detect cyanide in biological materials by a spectrophotometric procedure.

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Paper ID: JFS10607J
DOI: 10.1520/JFS10607J
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