Development Of A Simple Rapid Method For Determination Of Uric Acid Using UV Visible Spectroscopy

Abstract

Insect infestation is a major problem in the storage of food products and causes quality and quantity loss. The total weight loss of food products is about 10 per cent which occurs due to moisture loss, insect infestation, rodents, microorganism and birds during transportation and storage period. The insect infestation can be identified by detecting the presence of insect fragments, uric acid contamination, and quinone contamination. The uric acid can be determined by various instrumental methods but requires longer duration and high-tech equipment. The major objective of our study is to develop a simple rapid method to determine the uric acid content using UV-visible spectroscopy in the insect infested food materials. The rapid method is required for the food processing industries. A rapid method was developed to determine the uric acid with lesser time and accuracy. In the present study, a preceding method forms an unstable chromophore, whereas in case of a rapid method with UV-visible spectrophotometer, it was based on the formation of Prussian blue colour. The rapid method was validated with the preceding method. The R, R2 , standard error and DurbinWatson test values of preceding method were 0.996, 0.991, 0.000572 and 1.103 respectively, whereas the values for rapid method were 0.997, 0.994, 0.024806 and 1.713 respectively. The results of the analysis showed that, the rapid spectrophotometric method required less time of 20 minutes for analysis, whereas the preceding method required 40 minutes. The results of the study concluded that, the new rapid method is a simple and easy method to determine the uric acid content in a lesser time. The outcome of the result will help the food processing industries to utilize this simple rapid method for testing the uric acid analysis in the food products in a lesser time.