Application of the vanadium(V)-xylenol orange reagent to the assay of serum glucose

The VXO reagent (mixture of V(V) and xylenol orange) provided in our earlier studies is found very useful for the colorimetric determination of traces of hydrogen peroxide. In this paper the reagent is successfully extended to the assay of glucose in serum by the combined use of glucose oxidase.The VXO reagent exhibited a characteristic absorption maximum at 582 nm, and the presence of glucose together with glucose oxidase led to a significant decrease in the absorbance of the reagent. A linear relation was found between the magnitude of the decrease and glucose concentration in the range of 5 to 400 mg/100 ml. The average recovery of glucose added in serum was 98.6% and the data were reliable with a coefficient of variation below 3.0%. A good correlation to the method by 4-aminoantipyrine-phenol was found: r = 0.970. Ascorbic acid and uric acid did not interfere with the assay.