To develop a sensitive and selective chemiluminometric method for the determination of methylglyoxal, we used 2-aminonicotinic acid as the chemiluminescence derivatization reagent. 2-Aminonicotinic acid reacts with methylglyoxal in an acidic solution at 37 degrees C for 4 h and gave a chemiluminescence in N,N'-dimethylformamide containing sodium tert-butoxide. The detection limit (blank intensity plus three-times its standard deviation of methylglyoxal) for methylglyoxal is 233 fmol in the reaction mixture.
