Development and validation of a sequential-injection method with chemiluminescence detection for the high throughput assay of the total antioxidant capacity of wines

This work reports a sequential-injection analysis (SIA) method with chemiluminescence (CL) detection for the rapid assay of the total antioxidant capacity (TAC) in wines. The method exploited the Co(II)-catalysed CL reaction of luminol with hydrogen peroxide in alkaline medium. Zones of sample, hydrogen peroxide, catalyst (Co(II) solution) and alkaline luminol were sequentially aspirated into the holding coil of the SIA manifold. Then, the flow was reversed and the stacked zones were directed to the CL detector. As the zones overlapped, antioxidants in the samples scavenged a portion of hydrogen peroxide and the decrease in the CL intensity was monitored and related to the TAC. The chemical and geometric conditions were studied and the method was validated in terms of linearity, accuracy (trueness and precision), matrix effects, signal additivity and robustness. The reproducibility of the method (expressed as the between-days % relative standard deviation) was between 2.5 and 3.4% and the trueness (expressed as the % recovery in wines spiked with gallic acid) was in the range 96.7–97.3%. The sampling frequency was 60 samples h−1. The proposed SIA-CL method was compared with the DPPH method and the Folin–Ciocalteau (FC) method for the analysis of 25 wine samples.