Category Archives: eluvac

carbamate, clean-up, eluvac, freestyle, glyphosate, GPC, NEMC, pinnacle pcx, post-column derivatization, Uncategorized

NEMC 2013

Pickering Laboratories participated in the National Environmental Monitoring Conference in San Antonio, Texas from August 4-8.

niosita low res
Old San Antonio

Rebecca and Wendy were on-hand to share Pickering’s products with the environmental laboratories involved with the conference.  On display were the new FREESTYLE sample clean-up system and the Pinnacle PCX.

Some highlights of the conference included a new product by InnovaPrep, which will rapidly concentrate pathogens in liquid samples, and the 2-D GCMS analysis of POPs in human milk. There were also several interesting discussions about pesticide extraction and analysis as well as the use of Hydrogen as a carrier gas in GC (instead of Helium, for which there is currently a shortage).

The meeting was held at the Hyatt in downtown San Antonio on the Riverwalk. This area of town is full of history and interesting architecture. We were also located directly across the plaza from the Alamo.

alamo low res
Remember the Alamo
AcceCLEAN, aflatoxin, amino acid, Amino Acid Analysis, amino acids, antioxidants, AOAC, AOAC's Laboratory of the Year Award, artificial perspiration, carbamate, Chromatography, clean-up, column, deoxynivalenol, detector, dietary supplements, DON, Dr. Pickering, elisa, eluvac, ergot alkaloid, freestyle, GARD, glyphosate, GPC, Guard, HPLC, immunoaffinity cleanup, Multi-residue Mycotoxin Analysis, mycotoxin, natural toxins, New Products, Ninhydrin, ochratoxin, paralytic shellfish toxin, Physiological Fluids, pickering laboratories, pinnacle, pinnacle pcx, Post-column, post-column derivatization, psp, sweat, syringe pump, Trione, UVE, vector

Pickering Laboratories in 2013

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By Wendy Rasmussen

In recent years, we have released several new products and applications, and with still more on the horizon, it occurred to me that now would be a great time to summarize the Pickering of today – our mindset and our wide variety of products & applications.

Acai Berries
Acai Berries

No longer are we simply the “Post-Column Company”. We are the “Automated-Sample Antioxidants” company.  Think of us as the new “super fruit.” The Acai berry, or perhaps the new Chia Seeds (incidentally, we do have a post-column application for the identification & quantitation of  Antioxidants in a variety of matrices).

We are still very active, and we as a company plan to be here for many years to come. We are still the company founded on chemistry and a desire to to teach, to spread our technical expertise, to support our customers.

It’s been a few years now since Pickering began distributing and supporting our LCTech Product line.  The products have shown an ever increasing interest here in the US and in Canada (our official Sales Territory for this product line). We are very proud to offer these products and we hope we can develop it further in the future.

Historically, we have provided the back-end of an analysis (post-column derivatization). Nowadays, we can provide the front-end of analysis as well (the sample-cleanup).

In thinking about our product offerings, I realized that a simple list does not effectively show the scope of the products we have to offer in 2013 – primarily because we have a lot of overlap between products and product lines.  We’re not a vertical company in that regard.  I suppose one could say our product offerings are more circular in that many do not fall into a single distinct category.  I am a very visual person, and for me, a Venn diagram and our overall “product scale” really helped to understand and clarify our products:

Venn Diagram of Pickering Laboratories
Venn Diagram of Pickering Laboratories
General "Product Scale" for Pickering Offerings
General “Product Scale” for Pickering Offerings
For those of who like lists, you can find one Here, on Pickering’s website, and on LCTech’s Website

For any Questions, please feel free to contact us:

Pickering Laboratories, Inc.
Mountain View, California
Email: sales@pickeringlabs.com
Phone: (direct) 650-694-6700 or (toll-free) 800-654-3330

 

Image of Acai Berries:  http://acaiberryeducation.com/

aflatoxin, Amino Acid Analysis, carbamate, chromatographic specialties, Chromatography, clean-up, eluvac, freestyle, glyphosate, GPC, herbal products, HPLC, immunoaffinity cleanup, lctech, Multi-residue Mycotoxin Analysis, mycotoxin, natural products, natural toxins, New Products, Ninhydrin, ochratoxin, pickering laboratories, pinnacle pcx, Pittcon, post-column derivatization, spe

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…

aflatoxin, AOAC, clean-up, eluvac, freestyle, immunoaffinity cleanup, mycotoxin, pinnacle pcx, post-column derivatization, UVE

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.

eluvac, freestyle, Pittcon

Pickering Laboratories at Pittcon 2012

The centerpiece of our Pickering Laboratories display at Pittcon 2012 in Orlando, Florida was the FREESTYLE robotic instrument.  Building on the success of the LCTech GPC Ultra sample clean-up instrument,  the completely re-designed FREESTYLE sample clean-up workstation was on view at Pittcon this year. Notable features include an automated liquid handling robot arm, modules for both SPE and GPC, the powerful EVAporation module for online concentration in one package.

 “The FREESTYLE is the culmination of the best of our previous versions and new technology to bring the best automated sample clean-up platform available in the market today “ said Michael Baumann, President of LCTech Germany and manufacturer of the Freestyle.

Laboratory Equipment Magazine was on hand to video tape Mike Gottschalk, VP of Marketing with Pickering Laboratories – highlighting the laboratory productivity and analysis products shown at Pittcon this year:

The Freestyle is a powerful productivity tools for sample clean-up in any high throughput laboratories.

For labs needing Lab-scale sample Clean-up, Pickering Laboratories offers several instruments also on view at Pittcon. The GPC Quattro system enables 4 GPC columns to run simultaneously either all with the same method or with 4 different programs thus providing 4x the productivity of a single column system!

For SPE and Immunoaffinity column processing the EluVac vacuum chamber offers 1 to 20 columns in one setup. With a unique feature that provides these multiple columns to be loaded then washed, and then eluted into the collection vials in one setup just by rotating the cover.  These instruments and columns from Pickering Laboratories provide instruments and consumables for sample clean-up processing. See Wendy Rasmussen demonstrate the EluVac:

Pickering Labs continues to invest in method development for post column-derviatization analysis. The latest new area of focus is the herbal supplement market newly regulated by the FDA. Recently published are methods for Antioxidants in Supplements, Theanine in Tea and Aflatoxin in Spices, coffee and chocolate.
See the complete line of sample clean-up and analysis products on our website: www.pickeringlabs.com
aflatoxin, deoxynivalenol, DON, eluvac, freestyle, immunoaffinity cleanup, mycotoxin, post-column derivatization, UVE, vomitoxin

New Mycotoxin Cleanup Columns!

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Also on display this year at Pittcon were the a couple of NEW! Mycotoxin clean-up columns available from Pickering Laboratories:
AflaCLEAN SMART
The immunoaffinity column AflaCLEAN SMART is designed for sample clean-up for subsequent Aflatoxin analysis. 
This columns is smaller than the other counterparts on the market – it uses only a fraction of the solvent and yet has 100ng loading capacity as specified by the AOAC methods. 
During extraction, dilution, washing, sample loading and elution, more than 80% of the solvents can be saved.

The final elution volume is only 400uL instead of the typical 2mL – and yet has the same final concentration as with other columns.  As most methods inject only 20-50uL of sample onto the autosampler, this volume is more than enough for analysis. 

These columns can also be used with the very convenient and affordable EluVac vacuum manifold.

If you would like additional information, please email us: sales@pickeringlabs.com

DONeX
The DONeX column can be used in the sample preparation for the analysis of the mycotoxin Deoxynivalenol (Vomitoxin), which is often found on contaminated cereals and grains such as corn. 
The column is ideally suited to many common matrices such as corn, barley, oat, wheat, rye or cereal-based feed. The advantage of DONex is that these columns can also be used with complex matrices and one can stll obtain excellent recovery rates. 
DONeX is used with a sample load of 1 g for HPLC / post column / fluorescence detection or LC / MS.  By increasing the matrix load up to 4 g on column, users with HPLC / UV detection systems can reach detection limits as low as 200 ppb. 
Unlike our other Mycotoxin clean-up columns, DONeX is not an immunoaffinity column, and so it can be stored on the shelf and has an undefined shelf-life.
The DONeX clean-up column is based on a 3mL standard form and thus perfectly suitable for automated handling in the LCTech systems AcceCLEANTM and FREESTLYETM SPE. 
If you are interested in any additional information or would like to try a sample, please send us an email: sales@pickeringlabs.com
AcceCLEAN, aflatoxin, Amino Acid Analysis, amino acids, antioxidants, artificial perspiration, carbamate, clean-up, deoxynivalenol, dietary supplements, elisa, eluvac, ergot alkaloid, freestyle, glyphosate, GPC, immunoaffinity cleanup, Multi-residue Mycotoxin Analysis, mycotoxin, natural toxins, Ninhydrin, ochratoxin, paralytic shellfish toxin, pinnacle pcx, post-column derivatization, psp, syringe pump, Trione, UVE, vomitoxin

Pickering Products

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Mycotoxins: Clean-up Columns, ELISA Kits, Post-Column Derivatization Instruments & Methods, SPE manifolds (manual & automated) for the analysis of:

Aflatoxins
Ochratoxin A
DON
Nivalenol
Fumonisin FB1, FB2
Zearalenone
Ergot Alkaloids

Post-Column Derivatization: Pinnacle PCX, Vector PCX, UVE Photochemical Reactor, Columns, Reagents, Eluants for the analysis of:

Antioxidants
Mycotoxins (individual and multi-residue)
Amino Acids
Biogenic Amines
Paralytic Shellfish Toxin
Polyether Antibiotics
Hexavalent Chromium
Vitamins
Sugars
Nitrate/Nitrite
Bromate
Carbamate Pesticides
Glyphosate Herbicide
NDELA
Formaldehyde

Sample Preparation (clean-up) Instruments:

FREESTYLE for SPE, GPC, online-concentration
FREESTYLE ThermELUTE for Aflatoxin analysis (direct inject onto HPLC)
AcceCLEAN for SPE (incl. Immunoaffinity columns)
EluVAC vacuum manifold for SPE (incl. Immunoaffinity columns)
GPC QUATTRO for manual GPC Cleanup
DECS System for the cleanup of samples for Dioxin analysis

Chemistry Products:

Artificial Perspiration
Artificial Saliva
High Purity Water

Stand-Alone OEM Syringe Pump:

For any applications requiring an inert flow path, volumes up to 70mL, and pressures up to 500psi

For More Information visit:

www.pickeringlabs.com

or email: sales@pickeringlabs.com