Flow-injection chemiluminescence determination of phentolamine based on its enhancing effect on the luminol-potassium ferricyanide system

It was found that the light emission produced by the oxidation of luminol by potassium ferricyanide in the basic medium was enhanced by phentolamine, a drug recently used to treatment of male and female sexual dysfunction. The optimum conditions for this chemiluminescent reaction were studied in detail by a flow-injection system. A new, simple and rapid method has been developed under the optimum conditions for determination of phentolamine. This method has the advantages of high sensitivity, good reproducibility and low detection limit. On the basis of investigation of chemiluminescent, fluorescent and UV spectra of phentolamine in basic solution containing potassium ferricyanide and luminol, a possible mechanism of this reaction was proposed. In the optimum conditions, CL intensities are proportional to concentrations of the phentolamine in the 0.01-1 μg/mL range. The limit of detection is 3.0 ng/mL for phentolamine. The method has been applied to the determination of phentolamine in the commercial preparations, synthetical samples and biological fluids with satisfactory results.