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Errors Incurred by Use of Hydrogen Peroxide Digestion in Determination of Nitrate‐Nitrogen in Plant Material
Author(s) -
Boggero J. D.,
Stromberg L. K.
Publication year - 1973
Publication title -
agronomy journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.752
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1435-0645
pISSN - 0002-1962
DOI - 10.2134/agronj1973.00021962006500050052x
Subject(s) - hydrogen peroxide , chemistry , nitrate , nitrogen , reagent , digestion (alchemy) , peroxide , environmental chemistry , chromatography , biochemistry , organic chemistry
Determinations of the nitrate‐nitrogen (NO 3 ‐N) content of leaf tissue samples of sesame ( Sesamum indicum L.) by two analytical methods show that erroneous results may be obtained if digestion with hydrogen peroxide is employed during the procedure. This appears to be caused by the oxidation of nonnitrate nitrogen compounds to nitrates which results in higher nitrate levels than were present in the original samples. Nonnitrate nitrogen compounds of reagent grade, including two amino acids, were tested qualitatively for NO 3 ‐N with negative results. These same compounds showed the presence of nitrate when tested both qualitatively and quantitatively after digestion with hydrogen peroxide. Sesame leaf samples demonstrated considerable absolute and relative errors in many cases when analyzed quantitative by two methods, one which employs hydrogen peroxide digestion and one which does not. The relative error is shown to be substantial, particularly at the lower levels of NO 3 ‐N.