Deferiprone, a non-toxic reagent for determination of iron in samples via sequential injection analysis

•We present a green analytical method by using deferiprone as a non-toxic reagent.•We assemble a simple, rapid, sensitivity and cost effective SIA system for determining iron.•We use a non-toxic reagent (deferiprone) for determining iron content in real samples in cooperation with the SIA system.

We present for the first time the use of deferiprone as a non-toxic complexing agent for the determination of iron by sequential injection analysis in pharmaceuticals and food samples. The method was based on the reaction of Fe(III) and deferiprone in phosphate buffer at pH 7.5 to give a Fe(III)–deferiprone complex, which showed a maximum absorption at 460 nm. Under the optimum conditions, the linearity range for iron determination was found over the range of 0.05–3.0 μg mL−1 with a correlation coefficient (r2) of 0.9993. The limit of detection and limit of quantitation were 0.032 μg mL−1 and 0.055 μg mL−1, respectively. The relative standard deviation (%RSD) of the method was less than 5.0% (n = 11), and the percentage recovery was found in the range of 96.0–104.0%. The proposed method was satisfactorily applied for the determination of Fe(III) in pharmaceuticals, water and food samples with a sampling rate of 60 h−1.

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