Determination of Vanadium, Cobalt, Nickel, And Iron In Bromoperoxidases fromPseudomonas PutidaandCorallina Piluliferaby High Performance Liquid Chromatography with Spectrophotometric Detection

Determination of cadmium, zinc, nickel and cobalt in tobacco by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography with 2-(8-quinolylazo)-4,5-diphenylimidazole as a chelating reagent

A sensitive and selective method has been developed for the simultaneous determination of cadmium, zinc, nickel and cobalt. The method is based on the chelation of metal ions with 2-(8-quinolylazo)-4,5-diphenylimidazole (QAI) and the subsequent reversed-phase (RP) high-performance liquid chromatographic separation and spectrophotometric detection of the metal chelates. The chelates were separated on an RP column with acetonitrile-water containing ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid and sodium acetate (pH 7.5). Though Zn(II) and Cd(II) chelates with azo compounds were generally labile in the RP column, these chelates with QAI were successfully detected. When analyses were carried out at 575 nm and at 0.001 absorbance unit full scale, the peak height calibration curves were linear up to 2.0 ng for Cd(II), 2.4 ng for Zn(II), 0.14 ng for Ni(II) and 0.72 ng for Co(II) in 100-microL injections, respectively; the detection limits (3sigma, three times of the standard deviation for the blank signal) for Cd(II), Zn(II), Ni(II) and Co(II) were 4.8, 24, 2.4 and 7.2 pg in 100 microL of injected solution, respectively. The proposed method was successfully applied to the analysis of tobacco without any preliminary concentration or separation.

Physiological function of bromoperoxidase in the red marine alga, Corallina pilulifera: production of bromoform as an allelochemical and the simultaneous elimination of hydrogen peroxide

The physiological function of vanadium-bromoperoxidase (BPO) in the marine red alga, Corallina pilulifera, has been characterized from the viewpoint of allelochemical formation. The algae emit bromoform (CHBr3) depending on the enzyme activity level in vivo (Itoh, N., Shinya, M., 1994. Seasonal evolution of bromomethanes from coralline algae and its effect on atmospheric ozone. Marine Chemistry 45, 95-103). We demonstrated that bromoform produced by C. pilulifera played an important role in eliminating epiphytic organisms, especially microalgae on the surface. Such data suggest a strong relationship between the coralline algae and the coralline flat (deforested area in the marine environment: called isoyake in Japanese). Lithophyllum yessoense, the main inhabitant of coralline flats in Japan, produced a lower level of CHBr3 than C. pilulifera, and showed BPO activity. On the other hand, the seasonal change of BPO activity in C. pilulifera in vivo was in proportion to superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity and in inverse proportion to catalase activity. The phenomenon implies that BPO could be a potential substitute for catalase, because the enzyme catalyzes an efficient Br(-)-dependent catalase reaction.