Comparative Evaluation of Analytical Techniques for the Quantification of potassium in Fruit Juices and the corresponding Beverages

Abstract

Chronological advancement in technology has introduced sophistication to analytical chemistry. This positive development was necessitated by the need to answer myriads of questions such as the degree of selectivity, cost effectiveness, accuracy, sensitivity, speed and versatility of the evolving techniques. This trend in increasing complexity constitutes a major threat to the earlier classical chemical methods, which, invariably being considered obsolete. This research effort aimed at unraveling the invalidity of this claim. In the study, classical chemical methods were exemplified by gravimetric and titrimetric analytical techniques, while the modern physico-chemical methods were exemplified by flame emission and atomic absorption spectrophotometric techniques. These techniques were applied in quantifying potassium in fruit juices expressed from five selected tropical fruits namely: Apple(pome spp),Ginger(zingiber officinalis),Lemon (citrus orantifolia) and Orange(citrus reticulata).The result was evaluated using standard deviation and co-efficient of variation. The four representative techniques used were able to quantify the element of interest (potassium) and were also quite comparable in terms of sensitivity, specificity, selectivity, precision and accuracy.