Standardization of SPE signals in multicomponent analysis of three benzimidazolic pesticides by spectrofluorimetry

Piecewise direct standardization (PDS) is applied to multivariate standardization of fluorescence signals using partial least squares (PLS) and principal component regression (PCR) as the calibration models. The multivariate standardization was used to transfer spectra obtained after a step of solid phase extraction (SPE) to spectra registered in pure solvent in the determination of carbendazim, fuberidazole and thiabendazole in water samples. The influential parameters, such as tolerance, window size and the number of samples of the standardization subset were optimized by means of the root mean squared error of prediction (RMSEP). Similar RMSEP values were obtained by PLS and PCR using the optimized influential parameters in the standardization. However, better predictions of the compounds were obtained in test set by the PLS model.     

Detection of Ovine or Bovine Milk Components in Commercial Camel Milk Powder Using a PCR-Based Method

Food ingredient adulteration, especially the adulteration of milk and dairy products, is one of the important issues of food safety. The large price difference between camel milk powder, ovine, and bovine milk powder may be an incentive for the incorporation of ovine and bovine derived foods in camel milk products. This study evaluated the use of ordinary PCR and real-time PCR for the detection of camel milk powder adulteration based on the presence of ovine and bovine milk components. DNA was extracted from camel, ovine, and bovine milk powder using a deep-processed product column DNA extraction kit. The quality of the extracted DNA was detected by amplifying the target sequence from the mitochondrial Cytb gene, and the extracted DNA was used for the identification of milk powder based on PCR analysis. In addition, PCR-based methods (both ordinary PCR and real-time PCR) were used to detect laboratory adulteration models of milk powder using primers targeting mitochondrial genes. The results show that the ordinary PCR method had better sensitivity and could qualitatively detect ovine and bovine milk components in the range of 1% to 100% in camel milk powder. The commercial camel milk powder was used to verify the practicability of this method. The real-time PCR normalization system has a good exponential correlation (R² = 0.9822 and 0.9923) between ovine or bovine content and Ct ratio (specific/internal reference gene) and allows for the quantitative determination of ovine or bovine milk contents in adulterated camel milk powder samples. Accuracy was effectively validated using simulated adulterated samples, with recoveries ranging from 80% to 110% with a coefficient of variation of less than 7%, exhibiting sufficient parameters of trueness. The ordinary PCR qualitative detection and real-time PCR quantitative detection method established in this study proved to be a specific, sensitive, and effective technology, which is expected to be used for market detection.     

Multicomponent determination of pesticides in vegetables by gas chromatography with mass spectrometric detection and multivariate calibration

Three multivariate calibration methods, partial least squares (PLS-1 and PLS-2) and principal component regression (PCR), were applied for the first time to the simultaneous determination of a mixture of six pesticides in vegetables samples by gas chromatography with mass spectrometric detection (GC-MS). PLS-1 method showed better prediction ability than PLS-2 and PCR methods. The GC-MS chromatograms obtained of vegetable samples spiked with the target pesticides were used to build the calibration matrix. The PLS-1 models were evaluated by predicting the concentrations of independent test samples. Also, the proposed models were successfully applied for the determination of these pesticides in vegetable samples after an extraction step with dichloromethane. By using the first derivative signals in PLS-1 models, simultaneous determination of the compounds was not improved.     

Quantification of cow’s milk percentage in dairy products – a myth?

The substitution of ewe's and goat's milk for cheaper cow's milk is still a fraudulent practice in the dairy industry. Moreover, soy-based products (e.g., soy milk, yoghurt) have to be checked for cow's milk as they are an alternative for people suffering from an allergy against bovine milk proteins. This work reports the evaluation of different protein-based electrophoretic methods and DNA-based techniques for the qualitative detection as well as the quantitative determination of cow's milk percentage in dairy and soy milk products. Isoelectric focusing (IEF) of γ-caseins using an optimized pH gradient was appropriate not only for the detection of cow's milk, but also for an estimation of cow's milk percentage in mixed-milk cheese varieties. Urea-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) proved the method of choice to detect cow's milk in soy milk products, whereas IEF and SDS-PAGE of proteins were not applicable due to false-positive results. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis was used to confirm the results of protein-based electrophoretic methods. Problems inherent in quantitative analysis of cow's milk percentage using protein-based techniques and even more using DNA-based methods were emphasized. Applicability of quantitative real-time PCR for the determination of cow's milk percentage in mixed-milk cheese was shown to be hampered by several factors (e.g., somatic cell count of milk; technological parameters influencing the final DNA concentration in ripened commercial cheese samples). The implementation of certified reference standards (of major relevant cheese groups) containing 50% cow's milk was urgently recommended to enable at least a yes/no decision in commercial mixed-milk cheese samples.     

Fast and sensitive detection of genetically modified yeasts in wine

In this work, a novel screening methodology based on the combined use of multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and capillary gel electrophoresis with laser induced fluorescence (CGE-LIF) is developed for the fast and sensitive detection of genetically modified yeasts in wine. As model, a recombinant EKD-13 Saccaromyces cerevisiae strain was selected and different wines were prepared using either recombinant or conventional yeasts. Special emphasis is put on the yeast DNA extraction step, exploring different commercial and non-commercial methods, in order to overcome the important difficulty of obtaining amplifiable DNA from wine samples. To unequivocally detect the transgenic yeast, two specific segments of the transgenic construction were amplified. In addition, a third primer pair was used as amplification control to confirm the quality of the yeast DNA obtained from the extraction step. CGE-LIF provides high sensitivity, good analysis speed and impressive resolution of DNA fragments, making this technique very convenient to optimize multiplex PCR parameters and to analyze the amplified DNA fragments. Thus, the CGE-LIF method provided %RSD values for DNA migration times lower than 0.82% (n=10) with the same capillary and lower than 1.92% (n=15) with three different capillaries, allowing the adequate size determination of the PCR products with an error lower than 4% compared to the theoretically expected. The whole method developed in this work requires less than one working day and grants the sensitive detection of transgenic yeasts in wine samples.     

Flow injection analysis: Part VIII. Determination of glucose in blood serum with glucose dehydrogenase

The flow injection principle is used for enzymatic determination of glucose in blood serum with glucose dehydrogenase. Methods based on single-point determination on deproteinized serum samples, single-point determination comprising continuous flow dialysis, and two-point kinetic assay, are described and discussed. Special consideration is given to optimizing the flow parameters in order to minimize reagent consumption, yet to maintain a high sampling rate. Thus, for the single-point determination, a sampling rate of 120 samples per h was achieved at an expenditure of 3.12 g-units of glucose dehydrogenase per sample.     

Determination of the LOQ in real-time PCR by receiver operating characteristic curve analysis: application to qPCR assays for Fusarium verticillioides and F. proliferatum

Real-time PCR (qPCR) is the principal technique for the quantification of pathogen biomass in host tissue, yet no generic methods exist for the determination of the limit of quantification (LOQ) and the limit of detection (LOD) in qPCR. We suggest using the Youden index in the context of the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis for this purpose. The LOQ was defined as the amount of target DNA that maximizes the sum of sensitivity and specificity. The LOD was defined as the lowest amount of target DNA that was amplified with a false-negative rate below a given threshold. We applied this concept to qPCR assays for Fusarium verticillioides and Fusarium proliferatum DNA in maize kernels. Spiked matrix and field samples characterized by melting curve analysis of PCR products were used as the source of true positives and true negatives. On the basis of the analysis of sensitivity and specificity of the assays, we estimated the LOQ values as 0.11 pg of DNA for spiked matrix and 0.62 pg of DNA for field samples for F. verticillioides. The LOQ values for F. proliferatum were 0.03 pg for spiked matrix and 0.24 pg for field samples. The mean LOQ values correspond to approximately eight genomes for F. verticillioides and three genomes for F. proliferatum. We demonstrated that the ROC analysis concept, developed for qualitative diagnostics, can be used for the determination of performance parameters of quantitative PCR.     

A procedure for the determination of dichloromethane and tetrachloroethene in water using pervaporation and gas chromatography

In the present study, pervaporation was applied to the determination of tetrachloroethene (PCE) and dichloromethane (DCM) in liquid samples. PCE is the most commonly used solvent in drycleaning processes. PCE belongs to group 2A of carcinogens (probably carcinogenic to humans) according to the classification of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). DCM is also widely used as an industrial solvent for the purification and isolation of intermediates or products. DCM is classified as a “possible” human carcinogen by the IARC. The aim of this study was to evaluate a new procedure for the determination of DCM and PCE in liquid samples based on the pervaporative removal of DCM and PCE from liquid samples as an analyte isolation/enrichment technique, followed by a direct aqueous injection of the extracts onto the column of a gas chromatograph equipped with an electron capture detector (DAI-GC-ECD). The basic parameters of the new PV-DAI-GC-ECD procedure were evaluated.     

Near-infrared spectroscopy quantitative determination of Pefloxacin mesylate concentration in pharmaceuticals by using partial least squares and principal component regression multivariate calibration

Pefloxacin mesylate, a broad-spectrum antibacterial fluoroquinolone, has been widely used in clinical practice. Therefore, it is very important to detect the concentration of Pefloxacin mesylate. In this research, the near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) has been applied to quantitatively analyze on 108 injection samples, which was divided into a calibration set containing 89 samples and a prediction set containing 19 samples randomly. In order to get a satisfying result, partial least square (PLS) regression and principal components regression (PCR) have been utilized to establish quantitative models. Also, the process of establishing the models, parameters of the models, and prediction results were discussed in detail. In the PLS regression, the values of the coefficient of determination (R²) and root mean square error of cross-validation (RMSECV) of PLS regression are 0.9263 and 0.00119, respectively. For comparison, though applying PCR method to get the values of R² and RMSECV we obtained are 0.9685 and 0.00108, respectively. And the values of the standard error of prediction set (SEP) of PLS and PCR models are 0.001480 and 0.001140. The result of the prediction set suggests that these two quantitative analysis models have excellent generalization ability and prediction precision. However, for this PFLX injection samples, the PCR quantitative analysis model achieved more accurate results than the PLS model. The experimental results showed that NIRS together with PCR method provide rapid and accurate quantitative analysis of PFLX injection samples. Moreover, this study supplied technical support for the further analysis of other injection samples in pharmaceuticals.     

A sensitive determination of paraquat by spectrophotometry

A sensitive spectrophotometric method for the determination of a widely used herbicide, paraquat using a versatile reducing agent sodium borohydride is described. Paraquat is reduced with sodium borohydride in an alkaline medium to give a blue radical ion with an absorbance maxima at 600 nm. Beer's law is obeyed in the range of 0.05-0.5 mug ml(-1) of paraquat. The molar absorptivity and Sandell's sensitivity are found to be 2.9 x 10(5) l mol(-1) cm(-1) and 0.0006 mug cm(-2) respectively. The important analytical parameters and the optimum reaction conditions were evaluated. The method is free from the interference of other commonly used pesticides and metal ions. The method was applied successfully to the determination of paraquat in human samples, such as blood, urine and mother's milk compared to food and environmental samples.     

Application of principal component regression to the determination of Captopril by differential pulse polarography with no prior removal of dissolved oxygen

As shown in this paper, multivariate calibration in general and principal component regression (PCR) in particular allow the determination of Captopril by differential pulse polarography (DPP) in the presence of oxygen despite the overlap between their polarographic bands. Electrochemical parameters (pulse amplitude, pulse delay and drop time) are optimized from response surfaces using PCR to determine the relationship between the variables to be optimized and the relative square error of prediction (RSEP), which was adopted as the parameter to be minimized. The proposed method is quite fast and inexpensive as a result of the decreased analysis times and sparing use of the inert gas. It was applied to the determination of Captopril in synthetic samples and a commercially available pharmaceutical preparation, with relative errors and confidence intervals <2.5% and 2.0%, respectively. It should be noted that the sample can be analysed directly following dissolution in water without the need to remove the excipients.     

Automatic determination of total aliphatic amines by on-line photometric liquid-liquid microextraction

An automatic flow method for the determination of total aliphatic amines has been developed. Using an integrated micro extraction unit at the detection point that allows continuous on-line monitoring of small organic plug from which amines are extracted. It is based on the formation of ion-pairs between aliphatic amines and sodium 1,2-naphthoquinone-5-sulphonate that are subsequently extracted into chloroform. The gradual enrichment of the organic phase with the ion-pair is continuously monitored at 460 nm. Absorbance readings at a fixed time and the slopes of absorbance-time recordings are the measured parameters used for determination purposes. The proposed method has been applied to the determination of total aliphatic amines in both synthetic and real (food) samples.     

A modified HPLC method for the determination of aspartic acid racemization in collagen from human dentin and its comparison with GC

The D/L ratio of aspartic acid enantiomers in proteins of low turnover is generally accepted as a reliable procedure for age determination. In our study, twelve samples of eyetooth dentin were analyzed for age determination. The pure insoluble collagen isolated from eyetooth dentin was obtained by an EDTA demineralization process. Free amino acids obtained after collagen hydrolysis were converted into o-phthaldialdehyde-N-acetyl-L-cysteine (OPA-NAC) derivatives for HPLC analysis under modified conditions and into trifluoroacetic acid isopropyl esters for GC analysis, respectively. The modified HPLC procedure used phosphate buffer and acidified sample matrix prior to injection which resulted in suppression of peak tailing of both diastereomers, thus allowing achievement of both good selectivity and good resolution. To ensure the high accuracy of the developed method the other parameters, i.e. specificity, precision, linearity, LOD, and LOQ, were also determined. Nine collagen samples covering the age range of 18 to 84 years were used for the determination of coefficient of racemization (KR) and calculation of parameters for age estimation. The regression equations for the data set analyzed were as follows: KR= 0.0005 x age + 0.0262 (R2 = 0.9639) for HPLC, and KR= 0.0006 x age + 0.0319 (R2 = 0.9374) for GC, respectively.     

Spectrophotometric determination of acetone using vanillin

A sensitive method is described for the spectrophotometric determination of acetone in water. Acetone reacts with vanillin in alkaline medium forming a yellow-orange dye with an absorption maximum at 430 nm. Beer's law is obeyed in the range from 0.5 to 5 p.p.m. of acetone in water. Molar absorptivity and Sandell's sensitivity were found to be 11.0 x 10(3) +/- 100 l mol-1 cm-1 and 0.005 micrograms cm-2, respectively. The important parameters for complete colour development were optimised and the method was used for the determination of acetone in biological samples. The method was also applied successfully to the determination of acetone in air after absorption in sodium hydrogen sulphite solution.     

Application of response surface methodology for modelling the enzymatic assay of hydrogen peroxide by Emerson–Trinder reaction using 4-iodophenol

In this work, an initial-rate spectrophotometric method and response surface methodology (RSM) were combined for modelling and optimizing the experimental parameters of the enzymatic Emerson–Trinder reaction, for the determination of hydrogen peroxide. This spectrophotometric indicator reaction is currently used in biotechnology for the determination of phenolic compounds (e.g. in industrial samples) and also for determination of various substrates (e.g. in clinical chemistry). Using 4-iodophenol as a hydrogen donor in this reaction, the quality of the generated second-order polynomial response model equation was checked by the kinetic assay of H₂O₂ in real samples (e.g. cosmetic and human pooled serum samples), where their resulting satisfactory analytical characteristics were reported.     

Spectrophotometric Simultaneous Determination of Amaranth,Ponceau 4R,Allura Red and Red 2G by Partial Least Squares and Principal Component Regression Multivariate Calibration

ABSTRACT

The multivariate calibration methods, partial least square regression type 1 (PLS 1) and principal component regression (PCR), were proposed for the simultaneous spectrophotometry determination of Amaranth (E-123), Ponceau 4R (E-124), Allura red (E-129) and Red 2G (E-128) in their mixtures. The parameters of the chemometric procedures were optimized and the proposed method was validated with synthetic samples and applied to analyze these dyes in spiked samples of beverages with satisfactory results.     

Determination of the plasticizer N-butylbenzenesulfonamide and the pharmaceutical Ibuprofen in wastewater using solid phase microextraction (SPME)

A rapid, inexpensive and solvent-free method for the simultaneous determination of the polyamide plasticizer N-butylbenzenesulfonamide (NBBS) and the widely used pharmaceutical Ibuprofen by solid phase microextraction (SPME) combined with gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MSD) in wastewater samples was developed. Besides the optimized analytical conditions, results of investigations with varying analytical parameters are reported. Problems, which may occur during the analytical procedure (e.g. salt deposits, adsorption phenomena, carry-over), are discussed. For the determination of Ibuprofen, it is important to carry out the extraction under acidic conditions with sufficiently buffered samples; the GC/MSD system must be very clean and well maintained. SPME allows an extraction of Ibuprofen without derivatization of its carboxylic group. For quantification in complex matrices, the standard addition technique is necessary. Limit of detection and limit of determination are 0.1 μg/L for both analytes. NBBS and Ibuprofen were detected in several raw and treated wastewater samples from municipal wastewater treatment plants in the range from < 0.1 to 3.5 μg/L.     

Classification and determination of total protein in milk powder using near infrared reflectance spectrometry and the successive projections algorithm for variable selection

This paper proposes a methodology for the classification and determination of total protein in milk powder using near infrared reflectance spectrometry (NIRS) and variable selection. Two brands of milk powder were acquired from three Brazilian cities (Natal-RN, Salvador-BA and Rio de Janeiro-RJ). The protein content of 38 samples was determined by the Kjeldahl method and NIRS analysis. Principal component regression (PCR) and partial least squares (PLS) multivariate calibrations were used to predict the total protein. Soft independent modeling of class analogy (SIMCA) was also used for full-spectrum classification, resulting in almost 100% classification accuracy, regardless of the significance level adopted for the F-test. Using this strategy, it was feasible to classify powder milk rapidly and nondestructively without the need for various analytical determinations. Concerning the multivariate calibration models, the results show that PCR, PLS and MLR-SPA models are good for predicting total protein in powder milk; the respective root mean square errors of prediction (RMSEP) were 0.28 (PCR), 0.25 (PLS), 0.11 wt% (MLR-SPA) with an average sample protein content of 8.1 wt%. The results obtained in this investigation suggest that the proposed methodology is a promising alternative for the determination of total protein in milk powder.     

Combination of dispersive solid‐phase extraction and salting‐out homogeneous liquid–liquid extraction for the determination of organophosphorus pesticides in cereal grains

A new analytical method for the determination of organophosphorus pesticides in cereal samples was developed by combining dispersive SPE (d‐SPE) and salting‐out homogeneous liquid–liquid extraction (SHLLE). The pesticides were first extracted from cereal grains with acetonitrile, followed by d‐SPE cleanup. A 2 mL aliquot of the extract was then added to a centrifuge tube containing 9.2 mL water and 3.3 g NaCl for SHLLE. Analysis of the extract was carried out by gas chromatography coupled with flame photometric detection. The d‐SPE procedure effectively provides the necessary cleanup of the extract while SHLLE is used as an efficient concentration technique. Experimental parameters influencing the extraction efficiency including amounts of added water and salt were investigated. Recovery studies were carried out at three fortification levels, yielding recoveries in the range of 57.7–98.1% with the RSD from 3.7 to 10.9%. The reported limits of determination obtained from this study were 1 μg/kg, which is better than the conventional methods. In the analysis of 40 wheat and corn samples taken from Beijing suburbs, only two wheat samples have chlorpyrifos residue over the limits of determination.