Electrochemical Behavior of Apigenin at a Glassy Carbon Electrode and its Analytical Application

The electrochemical behavior of the antitumor herbal drug apigenin was studied in 0.1 mol L-1 B-R buffer solutions (50% ethanol, pH 3.0) by cyclic voltammetry (CV) at a glassy carbon electrode. In CV, two oxidation peaks (P-1 and P-2) with E-p1 = 1.03 V and E-p2 = 1.23 V appeared at a scan rate of 0.05 V s(-1), and a new electroanalytical method for this herbal drug was established according to the oxidation peak P-2. The peak currents have a linear relationship with apigenin concentration in a range from 9.0 x 10(-7) to 2.0 x 10(-5) mol L-1. Using the established method, apigenin in a herbal drug was determined without pre-separation with satisfactory results. Moreover. the electrode dynamics parameters were also investigated by electrochemical techniques and the possible electrode reaction mechanism was deduced.