Pickering Laboratories
Menu
 
Menu

Pickering Exhibits at Pittcon 2013

This year’s Pittcon was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from March 17-21, 2013.

view of philly from the museum On display were Pinnacle PCX, EluVAC, and a video of the FREESTYLE Automated Sample Preparation Instrument.  The video was a new technique for us, and it was well received.

The video in our booth was a combination of the separate videos for each module of the FREESTYLE Automated Sample Preparation Instrument. You can view the originals here (they are very informative, and we highly recommend them): FREESTYLE VIDEOS

Wendy, Mike and David enjoyed visiting with existing and future customers, as well as our distributors from around the world, including our Canadian distributor, Chromatographic Specialties.

Before the show opened, we had the opportunity to explore the city.  Philadelphia is one of our oldest cities and is full of history and landmarks. Some of this editor’s favorites include Independence Hall and the surrounding neighborhoods, and the Art Museum (see more below).  On this trip, we explored Reading Terminal Market, and sampled that famous cuisine, the Philly Cheese steak Sandwich. I’m told it is not truly a Philly Steak sandwich unless you have it with Cheez Whiz. Any type of real cheese doesn’t count. I made that mistake on my first trip to Philadelphia, and the man behind the counter let me know it!  I wasn’t about to make that mistake again:

philly cheesesteak

The Philadelphia Museum of Art is known for its amazing collection of artwork (viewed on a previous visit), but is also made famous by the scene of Sylvester Stallone running up the stairs in the movie Rocky.  Since the author of this entry happened to be training for a race, she decided that a little cold wasn’t going to stop her. So she put on her iPod (Rocky Theme playing, of course), and ran from the hotel to the top of the steps and back (total distance: about 2.8miles).

view from the bottom

wendy philly top of steps

wendy rockyOn the return to the hotel, I came across a version of the LOVE sculpture, by American Artist Robert Indiana. I always thought it was was much bigger…

love sculpture

 

For those of you interested in learning more about the sculpture, click HERE

If you’re ever in Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Museum of Art is definitely worth a visit.

But if you can’t make the trip to Philadelphia, you could also stay home and watch Rocky…

Pickering Attends 4th Annual Latin American Pesticide Residue Workshop

By David Mazawa

The Fourth Latin American Pesticide Residue Workshop (LAPRW) was held from May 26 to 29, 2013 at the Compensar Convention Center in Bogotá, Colombia. About 400 people from universities, private companies, and government agencies responsible for monitoring and regulating pesticide residues in agricultural and environmental samples attended the valuable presentations, discussions, and workshops.Photo May 26, 17 53 47 About 19 different exhibitors, including Pickering Laboratories, proudly sponsored the 4th LAPRW. We would like to thank the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Sociedad Colombiana de Ciencias Químicas and the Scientific Committee of the Latin American Pesticide Residue Workshop for putting together a great show. We look forward to the advancements of the Fifth Latin American Pesticide Photo May 25, 15 54 43Residue Workshop in Santiago, Chile.

http://laprw2013.com/ Photo May 25, 16 03 43 Photo May 25, 16 54 34 Photo May 25, 17 02 48

David and Laszlo
David.mazawa@pickeringlabs.com
Laszlo@pickeringlabs.com

Chromatographic Grade Water Recommended for Carbamate Analysis

By Maria Ofitserova & Mike Gottschalk

REh-body-image-2Purity of the mobile phase is an essential consideration in HPLC analysis. Solvents used to prepare mobile phase determine background noise level, presence of impurity peaks, as well as baseline drift during gradient formation. Use of highest purity solutions reduces undesirable baseline phenomena and improves overall sensitivity and selectivity of analysis.

EPA methods 531.1 and 531.2 require detection of carbamate pesticides in water on sub-ppb levels. To achieve such low detection limits it is crucial to have very low background noise and stable baseline without interfering peaks or drifts. Our customers long relied on Pickering Laboratories for highest quality reagents and chemicals. Now laboratories running carbamates analysis can purchase Pickering Laboratories Chromatographic GradeTM water tested using post-column analysis to be guaranteed free of fluorescence contaminations.

Aflatoxins in Edible Oils Collaborative Study Published

Pickering Laboratories, Inc was one of several laboratories who participated in a collaborative study, the results of which were published in the November-December issue of Journal Of AOAC International.

Here is the reference:

Determination of Aflatoxins B1, B2, G1, and G2 in Olive Oil, Peanut Oil, and Sesame Oil using Immunoaffinity Column Cleanup, Post Column Derivatization and Liquid Chromatography/Fluorescence Detection: Collaborative Study.

Authors: Bao, Lei; Liang, Chengzhu; Trucksess, Mary W.; Xu, Yanli; Lv, Ning; Wu, Zhenxing; Jing, Ping; Fry, Fred S.

Source: Journal of AOAC International, Volume 95, Number 6, November-December 2012, pp. 1689-1700(12)

Participating laboratories could use Photochemical Derivatization or electrochemical derivatization.  The sample clean-up was performed using Immunoaffinity clean-up columns.

Pickering has many great tools for the analysis of Aflatoxins, including the UVE Photochemical Reactor, our Pinnacle PCX, immunoaffinity clean-up columns, HPLC columns, and column handling equipment such as the FREESTYLE SPE, AcceCLEAN, and EluVac.

Visit Pickering at Pittcon 2013

We will be displaying our equipment at this year’s Pittcon in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from March 18-21, 2013. Be sure to stop by:  Booth 2533

We will have our Pinnacle PCX and Vector PCX post-column derivatization equipment on display as well as our Mycotoxin Analysis Products. In addition, we will some new videos to highlight the latest in our Automated Sample Preparation instruments, in particular the  FREESTYLE SPE system.

Wendy, David and Mike will be in Philadelphia. Please stop by. We would love to talk with you.
P1020659.

Believe it or Not

Believe it or Not

By Michael Pickering

Praying_Mantis_Mating_European-30
Praying Mantis

As a culture, we are obsessed with bugs.  We view all bugs, insects, beetles, and especially spiders as being nefarious.  The only general exceptions that come to mind are butterflies and ladybugs.  Even people who do not know the diet of the larvae and the beetles think they are cute.  But in this world view, the bug daddy of all of our fears is bacteria.  With the constant reminder of bacteria-contaminated food recalls and drug-resistant bacteria, we freak out.  Fungus is relegated to a minor role because most people think it only infects milk, cheese, and bread where the result is unsavory but not dangerous.  If your feet itch or you have a yeast infection, you consider it a treatable nuisance.

This is a skewed thought balance.  The crawly, multi-legged creatures fall into several categories: pernicious (usually economic damage), beneficial (usually predators of the former), symbiotic, etc.  One of the least populated categories is dangerous.  Similarly, most bacteria are benign or beneficial.  The rare, dangerous bacteria are mostly selected for by our overuse of antibiotics in medicine and more importantly in animal husbandry, where a pound is used for every gram used in medicine.  The devastation caused by fungus is mostly known to farmers, ranchers, and premature neonates, where it is the leading cause of death.

roach fossil
Cockroaches have been around for millions of years. Image from www.fossilmuseum.com

We despise flies, maggots, and cockroaches.  Cockroach larvae would also be reviled and feared, if ever seen.  This abhorrence is based on the notion that they spread germs.  Everyone knows that flies land on poop and on rotting things where maggots are subsequently found, and that cockroaches come from sewers.  They are very germy, very fungal places indeed.  However, that is exactly why the fly spends ground time where it does, and why the roach travels in sewers.  They and their larvae’s principal diet consists of bacteria and fungi.  Just as pigs to truffles, flies and roaches are attracted by smells.  Because the bacteria and fungi spores arrive airborne, they arrive long before the scent attracts the predators, so their colonies are well-established.

Flies lay eggs on rotting things for the abundance of food available for their larvae.  Not the fruit or vegetation, nor the poop, but the bugs feeding on the substrate.  Flies and roaches don’t transport germs, they eat them.  Aside:  With high sugar vegetation such as fruit, the fungus also causes fermentation, making ethanol.  Fruit flies that have been attacked by a wasp have been observed to self-medicate by moving to a “higher proof” fruit, because the wasp larvae implanted in them cannot tolerate the alcohol as well as the flies, thus killing the majority of the intruders.

Bacteria yet remain the scariest to us.  We are so phobic that we try to sterilize everything, including our mouths, our skin, our dwellings and especially our hospitals.  The truth is that we need bacteria to be healthy.  The biome needs bacteria to exist.  The reason hospital bacteria are so virulent and life-threatening is because the antibiotic cleaning agents we use kill 99% of the germs.  The one percent is the territory of the resistant bacteria.  The price the drug resistant bacteria pay for that property renders them non-competitive with the wild-type.  Without the 99% around, they can proliferate.  Aside:  That’s why, when you have a bacterial infection, the doctor insists that you take ALL of the pills.  Most of the unpleasant symptoms are gone after one or two pills, yet you still have a jar of pills.  The doctor is taking care of the one-percenters, the “hells angels” too.

Our mouths, intestines and skin would be dysfunctional were it not for our unique bacterial symbiotes.  Perhaps you have heard the popular parlor question, “what is the germiest part of the human body?”  Most people guess the nether regions, like the anus, or the feet.  In fact, it is the mouth.  Unheard of new strains of bacteria are yet being discovered in the human mouth.  Although healthy urine is sterile, a large part of normal stool is composed of living and dead bacteria.  Manure is always involved in produce recalls due to the presence of dangerous E. coli.  The most difficult type of “food” poisoning to remedy are the ones caused by bacterial invaders that displace the symbiotes in our lower intestine.  Eccrine sweat, which the body produces to regulate temperature and is most abundantly produced on the palms/soles and scalp, includes an antibiotic peptide that protects the resident bacteria.  So it is my opinion that we should use bactericidal cleaning agents sparingly and judiciously.  Don’t use antibacterial mouth washes daily – just when you have an infection like swollen gums or a sore on your cheek.  Do not try to sterilize your skin – use mild, high-fat soap when washing hands and bathing.  Our skin is hydrophobic; don’t make it dysfunctional with strong cleansers and detergents.  I believe that a large percentage of body odor issues and general skin health problems are created by misguided, overly-aggressive cleaning practices and bactericidal-spiked deodorants.

Back to cockroaches, whose presence I think make cities habitable.  Besides micromanaging the microbes in our cities, they are a balanced, healthy diet for mammals and so are a popular food in many parts of the world.  Rats and domestic cats find them irresistible too.  I’m reminded of a conversation with a visitor to our booth at the Pittsburg Conference one year.  He introduced himself as the “head shit chemist” of his state and city.  He mused about why he wasted state money on buying sophisticated, expensive air monitoring equipment for his sewer workers.  The workers had an inviolate rule about entering sewers, no matter what the expensive device reported about the quality of the air – no roaches = no entry!

maggots
Photo Credit: Cory Doctorow

Maggots are also beneficial.  Their merits have been praised in the medical literature as far back as the Greek physician Galen, during wars and for the victims in serious accidents involving exposed wounds.  An exposed wound on an immobile person is an ideal host for bacteria and fungi.  The flies eventually arrive, delivering the maggot “maids” who clean the wound, including the dead flesh, and leave the healthy parts intact.  Their metabolic heat helps to keep the patient warm if exposed to cold weather.  When I was in high school, there was an article in the LA Times about a lady who had plunged into a canyon in the Angeles Crest Mountains during winter and was not discovered for several days.  She was pinned in the car and had serious lacerations on her face, as her head had broken the door window.  Her survival was attributed to the maggots on her face – no germs or rotting flesh present, and enough heat generated to prevent hypothermia.

When observing nature, your senses, your beliefs and your emotions are all involved.  Adjust your dials accordingly.

Ripley did not care whether his writers’ submissions were true or not.  They just had to “sound good, ring true.”

Believe it or not.

Chromatograpy Quiz No. 12

Chromatography Quiz #11 Results

We would like to congratulate all six grand prize winners of our last newsletter’s Glyphosate Analysis Chromatography Quiz: Thomas Schneider from Suffolk County Water Authority, Hélène Lachance from Shur-Gain Nutreco in Canada, Jim Balk from DHHS Public Health Environmental Laboratory, Tom Phillips from Maryland Department of Agriculture, Matthew Hartz from Underwriters Laboratories, and Narjes Ghafoori from the LA County Environmental Toxicology Laboratory!!!

tea They have each won and will be receiving: a wooden chest of premium and specialty teas by Silkenty Tea (purchased from GiftTree.com)!  We would like to thank all of you for your submissions.

 

 

The correct answer for the modified Glyphosate chromatogram: Iron contamination has been introduced into the system and has fouled the column, resulting in poor peak shape and a retention time shift in AMPA.  If the problem worsened, the peak shapes would continue to deteriorate and eventually the Glyphosate peak could vanish completely.

The recommended action would be to reverse-flush the column with RESTORE™. The presence of polyvalent metal ions (especially iron) can rapidly lead to serious degradation of column performance.

Thank you!

Pickering Labs

Chromatography Quiz #12:

Identify the error made when running the Amino Acids chromatogram below and win a prize!  Simply email your answer as well as your full contact information to Rebecca at rlsmith@pickeringlabs.com by April 30, 2013 in order to win.  You will receive email confirmation that your submission has been received.  The troubleshooting answer and winner congratulations will be published in the next issue (to remain anonymous, please notify Rebecca in submission).

Amino Acid Analysis – Baseline Noise

Pinnacle PCX post-column instrument is being used, in a traditional HPLC setup as recommended by Pickering Labs.  The chromatogram is a close-up of a customer’s reoccurring baseline noise, and the quiz question is: what is causing the noise?

Post-column conditions for amino acid analysis:

Reagent 1: Trione

Reactor 1: 130 °C, 0.5 mL

Reagent flow rate: 0.3 mL/min

Detection:

UV-Vis Detector:  570 nm for primary amino acids,  440 nm for secondary amino acids

Please use our website to view any reference Amino Acid chromatogram – this quiz is not application-specific per say, and as such any of our AAA methods could be applicable.  If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email Rebecca at rlsmith@pickeringlabs.com.

bad baseline chromatogram quiz 12

 

 

Guaranteed Chemistry