Fluorescein As A Reagent In A Spectrophotometric Determination Of Micro-Amounts Of Iodine: Application To Glucose Determination

The increasing awareness of the close inter-relationships between biological activity and chemical reactions has resulted in a rapidly growing pursuit of biochemical knowledge. Research in the related fields of medicine, virology, pharmacy, and biophysics is expanding at a rapid rate. Problems related to food production for an exploding population, space explorations, world health issues, the utilization of the resources of the oceans, and the proper employment of energy sources have spurred man to delve deeper into the secrets of creation. The mysteries of life itself are slowly being revealed through finding in egentic studies. With this ever expanding biochemical and related research comes the concomitant requirement for the new and better analytical techniques. Already quantitative determinations are on the nanogram level. Many procedures are semi- or fully automated. In this framework of recent advances, the desire to develop an analytical procedure useful to mankind was kindled. In particular, the importance of iodine in certain essential biological systems and biochemical mechanisms led to the problem of this research. The purpose of this study was to determine the possibilities of utilizing fluorescein as an “indicator” in the quantitative determination of sub-micro amounts of iodine by an existing colorimetric technique. Furthermore, the application of this procedure to the determination of micro-amounts of simple carbohydrates, as glucose was considered a very real possibility