Flow injection spectrophotometric determination of boron in plant material with azomethine-H

A simple, fast method for the determination of boron in plant extracts is described. The method utilizes injection of 1.0 ml of an acid plant digest into a 0.1 M hydrochloric acid stream, with further addition of a buffer—masking solution and azomethine-H as the colour-forming reagent. Effects of pH, kinetics of colour reaction development, sample volume, reagent composition and interferences are described. The proposed method allows the analysis of plant extracts with boron contents in the range 0.1–6.0 ppm at a rate of 60 determinations per hour, with a reagent consumption of 2 mg of azomethine-H per sample. The precision is good (r.s.d. < 1%) and the results agree with those obtained by the curcumin method.