Development of a chemiluminescence detection technique for malachite green

Malachite green (MG), a triphenylmethane dye is often used as a fungicide and preservative in fisheries due to its effectiveness against water molds in fish and fish eggs. However, excessive inhalation can be hazardous to human health. To quantify the MG concentration, we created and evaluated a 96-well plate-based chemiluminescence immunoassay (CLIA). This method used provided readings in <30 min, with an optimal incubation time of 15 min and a limit of detection of 0.20 ng·ml⁻¹. The strong correlation (R² >0.99) between the measured values of real fish samples examined using the method and the high-performance liquid chromatography results confirmed the accurate quantitative detection of MG. In this study, CLIA was also used in conjunction with point-of-care testing (POCT) to greatly improve the efficiency of the experiments. Thus, a quantitative detection method based on MG plate chemiluminescence was established herein, with performance indexes that meet the requirements of on-site detection. This approach is also applicable to the detection of small molecule compounds such as chloramphenicol and sulfadiazine pyrimethamine, providing a new direction in the field of food safety detection.