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

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 460nm. Under the optimum conditions, the linearity range for iron determination was found over the range of 0.05-3.0μgmL(-1) with a correlation coefficient (r(2)) of 0.9993. The limit of detection and limit of quantitation were 0.032μgmL(-1) and 0.055μgmL(-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 60h(-1).