Flow injection analysis coupled with carbon electrodes as the tool for analysis of naphthoquinones with respect to their content and functions in biological samples

Naphthoquinones are one of the groups of secondary metabolites widespread in nature, where they mostly appear as chromatic pigments. They embody broad-range of biological actions from phytotoxic to fungicidal. An anticancer effect of naphthoquinones stimulates an interest in determination and characterization of single derivatives of 1,2- and 1,4-quinones in biological samples. The main aim of this work was to suggest a technique suitable to determine lawsone, juglone and/or plumbagin in biological samples and to study of their influence on BY-2 tobacco cells. The BY-2 tobacco cells were cultivated in the presence of the naphthoquinones of interest ( 500 mu g.l(-1)) for 24 h and then the morphological changes were observed. We found out that naphthoquinones triggered the programmed cell death at BY-2 cells, which can be confirmed by the apoptotic bodies in nucleus. After that we suggested and optimized different electrochemical techniques such differential pulse voltammetry ( DPV) coupled with hanging mercury drop ( HMDE) and carbon paste electrode, micro flow device coupled with carbon screen printed electrodes and flow injection analysis coupled with Coulochem III detector to determine them. The detection limits of naphthoquinones of interest were expressed as 3S/N and varied from units to hundreds of ng per millilitres according to methods used. Moreover, we utilized DPV coupled with HMDE and micro flow device to determine content of juglone in leaves Persian walnut ( Juglans regia). We determined that the leaves contained juglone tenths of g per 100 g of fresh weight. The results obtained show the convincing possibilities of using of these methods in analysis of plant secondary metabolites.