Abstract

A flow injection method for the determination of readily assimilable nitrogen (r.a.n.), i.e. ammonium and aminated nitrogen, is reported. The difference in pH of the sample in the presence and absence of formaldehyde, which blocks the amino function, provides the value of r.a.n. by monitoring the changes in absorbance of bromothymol blue at 616 nm. The detection and quantification limits are 10 and 11.6 mg l-1, respectively; the reproducibility and repeatability are 3.94 mg l-1 and 1.35 mg l-1, respectively; and the sample throughput is 20 samples h-1. The method has been applied to the analysis of 120 samples of must and wine subjected to biological aging. The proposed method also provides good correlation with the reference method used in routine analysis, and it is faster and gives sufficient precision for wineries requirements.