The determination of menadione and methods for the identification of quinones.

Sovelli (1) described a color reaction for menadione, in which the compound was reacted with 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazine, after which sodium hydroxide was added to alka1init.y. The green-colored product formed was extracted from the mixture with butyl alcohol. Attempts (24) have been made to apply this reaction quantitatively with variable results. Poor sensitivity, among ot)her things, was the main objection. Analytical procedures based on this principle have been published for the determination of menadione in pure solution, in pharmaceuticals (3, 4), and in animal feeds (5). It has been shown in this laborat’ory that the alkali salts of the 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazine derivat,ive of menadione in ethanol have an intense blue color, which can be used for the identification and determination of the compound (6). Details of this procedure are reported in this paper.