Spectrofluorometry determination of chelerythrine by TAIL-DLPME: ionic liquid serves as both extractant and solvent

Abstract

In the present study, a new ionic liquid extraction method was developed for the sensitive and accurate determination of chelerythrine in an aqueous solution. The results show that chelerythrine fluorescence increases significantly in ionic liquids, with 1-hexyl-3-methy-limidazolium hexafluorophosphate ([C₆MIM][PF₆]) having the greatest increase. Based on the significant enhancement of extraction efficiency of chelerythrine in ionic liquids, a sensitive spectrofluorometry method for the quantitative estimation of chelerythrine was established. At optimum conditions, a linear relationship was obtained in the range of 0.2–130 ng mL⁻¹. The detection limit was 0.059 ng mL⁻¹. The enrichment factor was 81.7, and the extraction recovery for chelerythrine was 98.1%. The proposed method was successfully applied for the determination of the chelerythrine in urine and serum samples.