Abstract

USE OF DRAGENDORFFS REAGENT FOR THIN LAYER CHROMATOGRAPHIC DETECTION OF TRIAZINE CLASS HERBICIDE ATRAZINE

Umakant D. Pawar*, Chandrakant D. Pawar, Ulka K. Kulkarni, Devanand B. Shinde and Rajendra K. Pardeshi*

Abstract

Atrazine is a member of triazine class of herbicide compounds. It is the noblest important herbicide and has a wide diversity roll of uses: in agriculture field mainly. During the last few years, Forensic Science Laboratories of Maharashtra State, India, detected a large number of human poisoning cases with Atrazine. Since a large number of biological samples were received for toxicological chemical analysis, thin-layer chromatography (TLC) was the method of choice. This study reports that dragendorffs reagent was found to be a selective and sensitive spray reagent for atrazine in routine analysis by TLC. Atrazine reacts with dragendorffs reagent and dilute nitric acid which gives intense orange-colored compound. The dragendorffs reagent does not react with the organochlorine insecticides, organ ophosphorus insecticides, and pyrethroids insecticide. Visceral constituents (amino acids, peptides, proteins, fats etc.) do not interfere.

Keywords: Dragendorffs reagent, Thin-layer chromatography, Triazine class herbicide, Atrazine, Forensic science.