Formaldehyde is a naturally occurring substance. Natural processes in the upper atmosphere may contribute up to 90 percent of the total formaldehyde in the environment. Formaldehyde, as well as its oligomers and hydrates are rarely encountered in living organisms. Methanogenesis proceeds via the equivalent of formaldehyde, but this one-carbon species is masked as a methylene group in methanopterin. Formaldehyde is the primary cause of methanol's toxicity, since methanol is metabolized into toxic formaldehyde by alcohol dehydrogenase.

AAT Bioquest's Amplite^® Fluorimetric Formaldehyde Quantitation Kit is used for quantifying formaldehyde. The kit uses a proprietary fluorogenic dye that generates a strongly fluorescent product upon reacting with formaldehyde. This fluorimetric kit provides a sensitive mix-and-read method to detect formaldehyde. The assay can be performed in a convenient 96-well or 384-well microtiter-plate format and easily adapted to automation without a separation step. Its signal can be easily read using a fluorescence microplate reader at Ex/Em = 400/510 nm.