Use of anthrone in the determination of trace amounts of glycerol

Abstract

A fluorescent product is formed when a sample containing glycerol is heated with a solution of anthrone in sulphuric acid, and based on this a method for the quantitative determination of glycerol in amounts from 10 to 75 µg is described. The original concentration of glycerol is determined from the intensity of the fluorescence of this product in sulphuric acid solution, after first producing a calibration graph from known amounts of glycerol. The method is particularly useful for determining the concentration of glycerol in spots separated from interfering substances by chromatography.