An environment-friendly spot test method with digital imaging for the micro-titration of citric fruits

A new method to determine the total titratable acidity of orange, lemon and passion fruit, based on a spot test obtained from digital images and using anthocyanins as the biodegradable indicator, is presented for the first time. The colorimetric reactions were carried out by acid-base titration on a microscale, employing anthocyanin with a microplate for spot test purposes, with detection by digital imaging. To obtain highly precise data, a chamber based on a diffuser was developed to control the illumination supplied by the light emitting diodes, and coupled to a smartphone to acquire adequate digital images. High precision was obtained with a relative standard deviation of 0.758% for n = 95. The RGB values were extracted from the digital images and used as analytical signals, the values being correlated with the micro-volume of the titrant and used to construct the titration curves and obtain the first and second derivatives, respectively. For comparative purposes, the official AOAC (Association of Official Analytical Chemists) and MAPA (Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply of Brazil) methods were used and the results compared by applying the paired t-test at the 95% confidence level (n = 3). No difference was found between the values and the relative errors were less than 2.8%. The micro-titrimetric method was fast, uses anthocyanins as the natural indicator, is practical, and permits a reduction of 922 times or 99.9% of the volume required in a conventional titration. It is therefore ideal for routine analyses leading to a reduction in the waste generated, according to the principles of green chemistry.