Sensitive adsorptive stripping voltammetric methodologies for the determination of melatonin in biological fluids

The reversible redox process that melatonin presented on carbon paste electrodes was the basis of a sensitive methodology for the determination of this hormone. From all the processes presented by this hormone, this was never used before as the basis of voltammetric measurements for melatonin determination. Therefore, parameters that affected the cyclic voltammetric signal were studied. A limit of detection as low as 9 x 10(-11) M was obtained when optimized alternating current voltammetry was employed. The reproducibility was excellent due to an adequate pretreatment of the solid electrode (RSD=2.7%, n=10). A comparison with methodologies that employ different electrochemical techniques from the point of view of their analytical characteristics was made. This methodology has proved to be suitable for the determination of melatonin in biological fluids.