Fast detection of sodium dithionite in sugar using a xanthylium-based fluorescent probe

Sifan Wang; Weijie Wu; Jiaqi Lv; Qingrong Qi; Wencai Huang

doi:10.1016/j.foodchem.2024.139547

Fast detection of sodium dithionite in sugar using a xanthylium-based fluorescent probe

Food Chem. 2024 May 6:452:139547. doi: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2024.139547. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Sifan Wang¹, Weijie Wu¹, Jiaqi Lv¹, Qingrong Qi², Wencai Huang³

Affiliations

¹ School of Chemical Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, China.
² West China School of Pharmacy, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China. Electronic address: qiqinrong@scu.edu.cn.
³ School of Chemical Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, China. Electronic address: hwc@scu.edu.cn.

PMID: 38728893
DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2024.139547

Abstract

Dithionite remained in the foodstuff may pose a great threat to the health of consumers. Three xanthylium-based probes were synthesized and their responses to dithionite were explored. Probe SH-1 could respond to dithionite selectively in PBS buffer (15% DMSO, 10 mM, pH = 7.4). Upon the addition of dithionite, the fluorescent emission of SH-1 at 684 nm dropped quickly (within 10 s) and the fluorescence decline was proportional to the concentration of dithionite (0-7.0 μM). The limit of detection was determined to be 0.139 μM. Then, the sensing mechanism was tentatively presented and the structure of resulted adduct (SH-1-SO₃^-) which was the reaction product of SH-1 and dithionite via a Micheal addition reaction followed by an oxidation reaction was verified. Moreover, white granulated sugar was subjected to the standard spike experiments and the results demonstrated a great potential of SH-1 for the quantitative monitoring of dithionite in foodstuffs.

Keywords: Dithionite; Fluorescent probe; Foodstuff; White granulated sugar; Xanthylium.