A new catalytic-spectrophotometric method for quantification of trace amounts of nitrite in fruit juice samples.

A new kinetic method has been developed for the determination of nitrite in fruit juice samples. The method is based on the catalytic effect of nitrite with the oxidation of Nile Blue A (NBA) by KBrO(3) in the sulfuric acid medium. The optimum conditions obtained are 1.2 mM sulfuric acid, 0.034 mM of NBA, 2.8 × 10(-3) M KBrO(3), reaction temperature of 20 °C, and reaction time of 100 s at 595.5 nm. Under the optimized conditions, the method allowed the quantification of nitrite in a range of 0.2-800 μg/mL with a detection limit of 0.02 μg/mL. The method was applied to the determination of nitrite in 15 brands of fruit juice samples.