Electroanalysis of Plant Thiols

Due to unique physico-chemical properties of –SH moiety thiols comprise wide group of biologically important compounds. A review devoted to biological functions of glutathione and phytochelatins with literature survey of methods used to analysis of these compounds and their interactions with cadmium(II) ions and Murashige-Skoog medium is presented. For these purposes electrochemical techniques are used. Moreover, we revealed the effect of three different cadmium concentrations (0, 10 and 100 μM) on cadmium uptake and thiols content in maize plants during 192 hours long experiments using differential pulse anodic stripping voltammetry to detect cadmium(II) ions and high performance liquid chromatography with electrochemical detection to determine glutathione. Cadmium concentration determined in tissues of the plants cultivated in nutrient solution containing 10 μM Cd was very low up to 96 hours long exposition and then the concentration of Cd markedly increased. On the contrary, the addition of 100 μM Cd caused an immediate sharp increase in all maize plant parts to 96 hours Cd exposition but subsequently the Cd concentration increased more slowly. A high performance liquid chromatography with electrochemical detection was used for glutathione determination in treated maize plants after 96 and 192 hours of treatment. The highest total content of glutathione per one plant was 6 μg (96 h, 10 μM Cd) in comparison with non-treated plant (control) where glutathione content was 1.5 μg. It can be concluded that electrochemical techniques have proved to be useful to analyse plant thiols.