The development of paper microzone-based green analytical chemistry methods for determining the quality of wines

The colorimetric determination of the concentration of polyphenols, flavonoids, and anthocyanins in wine samples, using a mobile phone camera for sample spot capture on a paper microzone and a remote computer with dedicated software for quantification, is presented as an illustrative application of green analytical chemistry. A comparison of the results with conventional spectrophotometry demonstrates that both methods yield similar results. Developing the assay took approximately 2 months, and the use of chemicals, compared with spectrophotometry, was reduced by about two orders of magnitude: the paper assay consumed 0.4 mL of reagent for 100 samples, whereas the spectrophotometric assay required 100 mL. The relative testing times for 100 samples were 7 h by spectrophotometry and 2 h for paper-a savings on the order of 3.5. No analytical instrumentation was used for the colorimetry on paper microzones. Instead, the assay took advantage of the existing communication technology and free software. The assay was found to be effective, with a nonlinear response at the concentration range of 0.2-5 g/L. The detection limit of the proposed method is in sub-grams per liter.