Ion chromatographic method for simultaneous determination of nitrate and nitrite in human saliva

A simple, rapid, accurate and sensitive method is proposed for the simultan eous determination of nitrite and nitrate in human saliva. Nitrite and nitr ate present in the human saliva were determined after 10- to 100-fold dilut ion with ion chromatography (IC) using suppressed conductivity detection. R ecoveries of nitrite and nitrate were found to be ranged between 95% and 10 1%. The method was linear (r(2)=0.9991) over the concentration working rang e. The detection limits were found to be 15.0 mu g/l and 33.5 mu g/l, for n itrite and nitrate, respectively. Ions that are present in human saliva and several other ions that are suspected to affect nitrite and nitrate determ ination were checked. It was found that most of the ions did not cause any interference in the determination. The method allows simultaneous determina tion of nitrite and nitrate in human saliva. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.