Flow Injection System with Potentiometric Detection for the Determination of Urea Content in Milks

Abstract

Two variant manifolds of a flow injection analysis (FIA) system are described for the determination of urea content in milks. This determination consists of the enzymatic reaction of urea with urease in which ammonium ion is formed. Ammonium is converted to ammonia by adding a NaOH solution and then led to a gas diffusion unit in which it diffuses to an acceptor channel (Tris/HCl, pH 7.5). Here, it is reconverted to ammonium ion and determined by a tubular configuration electrode sensitive to this ion. One of the FIA manifolds is based on the merging zones technique, whereas the other uses an immobilized enzyme. The results obtained were compared with those given by the Boehringer UV test and by the Official Method of Analysis of the Association of Official Analytical Chemists (AOAC) which can be applied to animal feed and adapted to the matrix studied. The relative deviation was less than 5%, and the precision of the developed methodologies considering RDS (%) was always less than 2%. Keywords: Ion-selective electrodes; milk; urea; immobilized enzyme; merging zones