Direct determination of formaldehyde concentrations in biological, food and environmental samples.

• Safe, sensitive, non-radioactive assay
• As low as 1.5 μM (45 ppb) formaldehyde can be quantified
• "Mix-incubate-measure" type assay
• No wash and reagent transfer steps are involved
• Can be readily automated for processing thousands of samples per day

Formaldehyde (methanal) is the simplest aldehyde

BioAssay Systems' newly designed Formaldehyde Assay Kit provides a convenient fluorimetric means to measure formaldehyde in biological samples. In the assay, formaldehyde is derivatized with acetoacetanilide in the presence of ammonia. The resulting fluorescent product is then quantified fluorimetrically (&lambdaexc/em = 370/470nm). The assay is simple, sensitive, stable and high-throughput adaptable. The assay can detect as low as 1.5 μM formaldehyde in biological samples.

It is widely employed in industry for wide range of applications. Formaldehyde is also used as a disinfectant and is a commonly utilized tissue fixative and embalming agent. Formaldehyde is naturally present in all tissues and body fluids. Recently it has been shown that some cancer types exhibit elevated formaldehyde levels. Increased formaldehyde concentration in urine has been associated with prostate and bladder cancer. Thus, measuring formaldehyde in urine can be a very useful tool when studying cancer.