Spectrophotometric method for the determination of paraquat in water, grain and plant materials

A sensitive spectrophotometric method for the determination of paraquat using ascorbic acid (an easily available reducing agent) is described. Paraquat is reduced with ascorbic acid in alkaline solution to give a blue radical ion with an absorbance maximum at 600 nm. Beer's law is obeyed in the range 12-96 micrograms of paraquat in 10 ml of the final solution (1.2-9.6 ppm). The important analytical parameters and the optimum reaction conditions were evaluated. The method was applied successfully to the determination of paraquat in water, grain and plant materials.