A sensitive flow injection chemiluminescence method for the determination of progesterone

A sensitive flow injection (FI) chemiluminescence (CL) method was developed for the determination of trace amounts of progesterone. This method was based on the luminescent properties of the tris(1,10‐phenanthroline) ruthenium(II) ‐ potassium permanganate (KMnO 4 ) ‐ progesterone in acidic medium sensitized by Na 2 SO 3 . With the peak height as a quantitative parameter applying optimum conditions, the relative CL intensity was linear with progesterone concentration in the range of 1.0 × 10 −10 ∼ 6.0 × 10 −9 g·ml −1 and 6.0 × 10 −9 ∼ 4.0 × 10 −8 g·ml −1 with a detection limit of 7.1 × 10 −11 g·ml −1 . The relative standard deviation (RSD) was 2.79% for 1.0 × 10 −8 g·ml −1 progesterone ( n = 11). The proposed method held low detection limit and was successfully applied to determination of progesterone in pharmaceutical preparations. The possible CL reaction mechanism was also discussed. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.