Quantitative Fluorimetric Analysis of Plant Nicotinamide

Fluorimetry was used to measure the amount of nicotinamide in plant samples. The nicotinamide was extracted and purified from plant tissues with ethyl acetate; converted to the fluorescent derivative, N¹-methylnicotinamide, by reacting with methyl iodide; and quantified according to its fluorescent strength. The nicotinamide in the leaf tissue of ten kinds of plants was measured, and the results showed that the nicotinamide content for different plants varied from 0.1 to 3.0 mg/g of fresh leaf weight. In addition, the crossing value of the fluorescent strength and the nicotinamide amount demonstrated that the linear correlation coefficient generally reached 0.997, with a detectable limit of 0.02 mg/L and the relative standard deviation of less than 9%. The results suggested that this method of quantifying nicotinamide in plants is useful and beneficial for functional research.