Recent analytical methodologies and analytical trends for riboflavin (vitamin B2) analysis in food, biological and pharmaceutical samples

With the increasing importance of riboflavin in food, biological and pharmaceutical fields, accurately detecting its content is of great significance for guiding nutritional-health, diagnosis/treatment of related diseases, pharmacological research of riboflavin and supervision of food/drug quality. In this review, the recent detection methods established for riboflavin in food, biological and pharmaceutical fields were comprehensively summarized, including mass spectrometry, fluorescent detection, electrochemical detection, immunoassay, etc. Detailed information involving ingenious sample pretreatment, new-born/advanced materials, new established methods/sensors/platforms, advantages/disadvantages of various detection methodologies and eminent results are compared and discussed. With the elucidation of detection mechanism customized for riboflavin structure/physicochemical-property and the development of new-born functional materials for sensor/platform/sample-pretreatment, excellent detection performances with time-saving (separation-detection of riboflavin in urine within 2 min), high sensitivity (LOD as low as 0.5 fg mL−1), eminent precision and accuracy for riboflavin analysis have been achieved. Finally, the current trends and future perspectives of riboflavin analysis are presented.