The measurements of nitrate and nitrite anions in biological samples have gained more interests due to their association with the nitric oxide (NO) pathway. Since these ions are the oxidation products of NO, their presence can be used as an indicator of the NO production activities. There are many methods available for the direct and indirect measurements of nitrite. Unfortunately, this is not the case for nitrate due to its different chemical reactivity. Consequently, most of the analytical procedures of nitrate include its conversion to nitrite using either enzymatic reduction or cadmium-based reductors. Those procedures are tedious, time consuming, expensive, require multiple sample transfer, and suffer from diminished activity. Here, we are introducing a new nitrate reductor to overcome these shortcomings. The reductor is a 3 cm long multi-metal alloy wire with a diameter of 1.6 mm. One end of the wire is folded to increase the surface area of the reductor in contact with the sample for shorter reduction time.

Features     It does not require activation, even after few hundreds of samples. Reusable for hundreds of samples. No need to bring the sample to the reductor. Take the reductor to the sample. This eliminates the need of sample transfer which saves time and eliminates sample loss. Can be used in any sample container such as vial, tube, micro-plate well, or spectrophotometric cell. It is very small. Virtually, no minimum sample volume restriction required. It can be used in 50 microliters or 5 milliliters. 100% conversion in few minutes. Very economical. Used at room temperature.