Imitation of gastrointestinal conditions is necessary for dissolution and pharmacokinetic studies of drug formulations. Dissolution is a routine part of Quality Control testing for most medications and dissolution methods, including required medium, are specified by Pharmacopeia monographs. The use of appropriate dissolution media during drug development stage also helps answer questions on bioavailability of the pharmaceuticals. Simulated gastric
and intestinal fluids are also used to study the safety profile of products that carry risks of unintended use like accidental ingestion.

Simulated Intestinal Fluid and Simulated Gastric Fluid test solutions are prepared according to USP specifications. We offer these products with and without enzymes to accommodate different USP testing requirements. Our 2-part formulations come with dry pre- weighted enzyme powder to be mixed in before use. This allows for longer shelf life of the product and predictable activity
of the enzyme in solution.

Stabilized Simulated Intestinal Fluid contains preservative to prevent bacterial growth and can be stored at room temperature.

Esslab – New UK/EU Product Testing Solutions Distributor!

By: Kevin McKeown

We are beyond happy to announce our appointment of a new dealer, Esslab, covering our PTS (Artificial Body Fluids) products in the UK/EU and beyond!

Esslab has over 40 years of experience in the chemicals space and is located in beautiful Westcliff-on-Sea in Essex, England.  Founder, and President, Cliff Marshall has been a long-time fixture in the Certified Reference Materials world.  Personally, I have known Cliff for over 10 years and thought that his company would be a perfect fit for Pickering Lab’s range of Artificial Body Fluids.  Esslab’s mission statement closely aligns with our core values:

We’re a company with a simple, yet meaningful mission: to empower customers to achieve analytical integrity through a range of competitive products, exceptional services and trusted technical advice.

Cliff and his team have been hard at work, researching and educating their customer base on our product line.  For a taste of some of these well-written articles please see below:

https://esslabshop.com/blogs/news/artificial-perspiration-a-new-tool-in-the-fight-against-harmful-pfas-exposure

https://esslabshop.com/blogs/news/protecting-us-from-ourselves-lab-testing-to-ensure-consumer-safety

If you’re in the UK, EU or Middle East and would like more information on Artificial Body Fluids you can reach out to sales@esslab.com

Welcome Esslab!

By: Kevin McKeown

Another summer has passed and we are VERY happy to be returning to your inboxes in this fall edition of the Pickering Labs Newsletter.  We have a little bit of everything to share, from a milestone 25^th work anniversary to exciting new products!  Also included are a few articles on our Synthetic Blood (just in time for Halloween!) and an update on our Pinnacle instrument.

We start things off with a look at the Updated Blood Product Abstract.  This piece of literature has a few notable additions.  We have updated our product formulations to match the latest ASTM F1819-19 methods (1700-0720 and 1700-0729), and added two brand-new solutions that conform to ISO 16603.  Finally, we brought back a “fan favorite” in our 3.8 cSt blood, which has a viscosity close to actual human blood.

Next, we get a cool look at a customer’s testing practices in Synthetic Blood in Action.  Sameer Patel, of Detmold Group in Australia, has been kind enough to give us some action shots on how he’s using our Blood solutions in his lab!  Really fun stuff and a big thanks to Sameer. 

Saji George gives us some exciting Paralytic Shellfish Poisons (PSP) updates in the newest Reagent Bulletin for PSP Consumables.  These reagents and mobile phase buffers are vital for Paralytic Shellfish/PCOX testing and enable customers using an Onyx or Vector PCX to use trusted consumables to help them more quickly run this important testing method. 

What would any newsletter be without some mention of Past and Upcoming Shows!  From coast-to-coast, you can find us at tradeshows and scientific conferences, focusing both on our Post-Column and PTS (Artificial Body Fluids) products.  We have pictures from the first tradeshow that we’ve ever walked to, practically next door in our Mountain View neighborhood (Wearable Technologies) along with news on two upcoming shows in October: AATCC in Savannah, GA and the Harmful Algae Symposium in Portland, ME.

In our most exciting article of this newsletter, we are honored to celebrate our long-term employee, Severo Munoz, in Severo’s 25^th Work Anniversary!  You would be forgiven if you thought Severo looks WAY too young to be celebrating this milestone, but we promise he really has been here for this long!  Severo is a vital part of the company, but most customers never get to meet him.  So, we’re excited to make introductions as we send our ‘cheers’ his way!  He’s helped us grow, particularly internationally, with his unparalleled expertise in Shipping.

Finally, we have a note about the eventual retirement of our Pinnacle instrument in Pinnacle Obsolescence.  There is no need to fear, as we’ll still be supporting this instrument until January 1, 2030.  As many have probably already found out, we have the next generation Onyx instrument as the replacement for our beloved Pinnacle.

Finally, don’t forget to enter your submission for our Chromatography Quiz!  Just as in the last edition, David has cooked up another fun Amino Acids Analysis challenge, but this time it’s all about a Rising Baseline.  Congratulations to our prior winners and best of luck to our new participants this quarter!

We are taking a slight detour from our Chromatography related questions to offer a small peak into our Product Testing Solutions formulations. You can find background information for the quiz questions here:

Pickering Test Solutions

Perspiration Tests of Consumer Products (White paper)

Product Testing Solutions Brochure

Quiz #42 – Product Testing Solutions

Natural human perspiration has a complex composition that depends on the type of sweat gland, the person’s metabolism and hydration level. Pickering Laboratories’ human mimic artificial perspiration solutions are formulated based on published data for human sweat and provide the closest match to the “real thing” available on the market. These solutions are perfect for testing a variety of consumer products and medical devices as well as for forensics applications and as blanks for medical testing protocols.

• There are two types of human perspiration; _____________ and _____________ perspiration.
• ____________ perspiration is used for body temperature regulation.
• Eccrine perspiration contains _______ acids, minerals, and metabolites.
• Pickering Laboratories’ proprietary Artificial Eccrine Perspiration comes at pH_____.
• Apocrine perspiration is secreted by apocrine glands and contains _______ acids and proteins.
• Apocrine perspiration is initially odorless. Odor (volatile fatty acids) is produced once acted upon by _____________.
• What is an oily substance that mixes with lipids to form a protective coating on the skins surface?
  1. Sebum
  2. Cerumen
  3. Perspiration
  4. All of the above
• Currently, Pickering Laboratories offers the following product testing solutions:
  1. Perspiration
  2. Blood
  3. Saliva
  4. Lung Fluid
  5. All of the above
• The pH of the solution is an important consideration in product testing, affecting corrosion rate, level of color degradation and leaching of metals and organic components from wearable products. Many procedures require a tight pH range during testing. To accommodate these pH requirements and to improve pH stability over time, Pickering Laboratories is offering _________ versions of industry-specific artificial perspiration formulations. By adding a Phosphate buffer to the original formulation, the pH stability of the solution is greatly improved while its effect on corrosion and colorfastness remains unaffected.
• _____________ is one of the most important concerns in the textile industry. Discoloration of fabric can be due to perspiration, light, rubbing or a combination of all three. Salt, urea and lactic acid present in sweat can disrupt the bonding that dyes form with the fabric fibers, causing fading of the color. In addition, amino acids in sweat can attach to fabric to produce “protein stains”.
  1. Dissolution
  2. Staining
  3. Corrosion
  4. Colorfastness
• Use of nanotechnology to endow new properties to textiles, such as antibacterial or UV protection, water repellency or flame retardancy, together with incorporating sensors and other digital components, creates the need to consider the effects of sweat on nanoparticles leaching and _____________ of integrated circuits as well.
  1. Corrosion
  2. Rusting
  3. Colorfastness
  4. Dissolution
• A Certificate of Analysis (COA) and Safety Data Sheet (SDS) are available for all product testing solutions at no additional charge. True or False
• Pickering’s product testing solutions and mimics are convenient, save you time, homogenous, reproducible, and customizable. True or False
• Pickering offers customizable versions of our product testing formulations. True or False
• Pickering Labs will be at booth 2138 at Pittcon 2023. True or False

Submit your answers to rsmith@pickeringlabs.com by April 28, 2023.

Announcing the winners of our previous quiz, Chromatography Quiz #41 – Amino Acids Baseline Noise

What is causing the baseline issues illustrated in the amino acids chromatograms?

Answer: Outgassing. There was no 100psi back-pressure regulator installed on the outlet of the detector flow cell. Because of this, there was not enough pressure to prevent boiling in the heated reactor (130C), which led to small bubbles showing up in the baseline.

Pickering Laboratories would like to congratulate the winners for our previous newsletter’s Chromatography Quiz #41:

Josiah Hakala from Minnesota Department of Health and Narjes Ghafoori from Los Angeles County Public Health Laboratory. 

They each will soon be receiving an Ember Travel Mug!  This smart device is “the world’s first temperature control mug” and does more than simply keep your coffee hot. According to Ember, “our smart heated travel mug allows you to set an exact drinking temperature and keeps it there for up to 3 hours, so your coffee is never too hot, or too cold.” 

Seems pretty cool to us!

Congratulations to our quiz winners!  Thank you all for your submissions!

By David Mazawa

Pittcon 2020 was hosted in the “Windy City” of Chicago, Illinois from March 1-5 this year. I was joined by Rebecca Smith and Skip Vo and we had a wonderful time in Chicago! We all hope to come back in the near future.

We used the Pittcon platform to formally launch the Onyx PCX: the newest post-column instrument from Pickering Laboratories, Inc. It was a great opportunity to introduce our latest and greatest post-column instrument to distributors and interested customers from all around the world. Retaining all the best features of the Pinnacle PCX, our new Onyx PCX also supports greater compliance and usability for our customers.

Our redesigned marketing literature was also on display, including our brand-new catalog. All materials are free to download from our website here:

     – 2020 Catalog
     – Onyx PCX Brochure
     – Post-Column Brochure 
     – PTS Brochure

Pickering’s “best in show” giveaways enticed many show attendees to venture closer to our booth. Once drawn in, scientists and engineers alike were fascinated by our growing Product Testing Solutions line. It was great to see lots of interest in our Artificial Saliva products especially.

Our daily raffle was a big hit and we would like to congratulate the following raffle winners: Leonard Ver Vers of NALCO Water, Brian Edwards of Neurocrine, and Glendon Parker of UC Davis. Each of them is now enjoying an Onyx Whoop Strap and 6-month subscription to the Whoop online health and fitness community – perfect timing help our winners to stay moving during a shelter in place order.

Pittcon also gave us the chance to take our newest employee, Skip Vo (Purchasing Agent), on his first trip to Chicago! Skip and I took time before the conference started to see Chicago’s sites and have a classic Chicago steak dinner to celebrate. Skip was a big help with booth management and said he really enjoyed meeting our customers and vendors alike. Thank you for your help, Skip!

I know I speak for all the staff at Pickering Laboratories when I say I’m looking forward to mingling with the scientific community once again at Pittcon 2021 in New Orleans, Louisiana from March 6-10, 2021.

If there is anything I can do to provide service or support for you and your laboratory between now and then, please reach out to me at support@pickeringlabs.com without hesitation.

PICKERING LABORATORIES INTRODUCES ONYX PCX – A CULMINATION OF NEARLY 40 YEARS OF POST-COLUMN INNOVATION

Next generation post-column derivatization instrument delivers on promise of “Guaranteed Chemistry”

Mountain View, California, Nov 25, 2019 – Environmental, pharmaceutical and feed laboratories now have access to the newest model of post-column derivatization instruments – the Onyx PCX.  Every component of this system has been optimized for post-column applications, thereby improving ease of use, reliability and ruggedness of analytical instrumentation. Onyx PCX is used in the analysis of amino acids, glyphosate, mycotoxins, antibiotics, cannabinoids and a variety of other applications. This latest instrument is part of the commitment Pickering Laboratories has to complete application support. Together with analytical columns, high-purity reagents, mobile phases and methods, the Onyx PCX post-column system supports Pickering Laboratories’ guarantee of method performance and chromatographic separation.

The Onyx PCX features a precisely programmable convectional column oven with temperature gradient capabilities and a fully inert flow path with ceramic syringe reagent pumps, PEEK electronic valves and PTFE reactor coils. All main components of the system are accessible from the front panel for ease of monitoring and maintenance. Following the tradition of Pickering Laboratories’ derivatization instruments, the Onyx PCX can be connected to any HPLC system, greatly expanding the LC’s capabilities.

“We are also very excited about new software features, such as extensive record-keeping capabilities and automated heaters calibration,” says Dr. Maria Ofitserova, Senior Research Chemist at Pickering Laboratories. “In addition to log files collecting real-time data on all instrument parameters for troubleshooting purposes, we now have the User Journal that allows laboratories to maintain records of completed runs, error messages, changes to methods and sequences.” She continues, “these and other details are important for audits and regulatory compliance. We also introduced an automated calibration feature for our heaters, which supports instrument performance qualification in the field.”

About Pickering Laboratories, Inc.:

Pickering Laboratories, Inc. manufactures analytical columns, high-purity reagents, and post-column derivatization instruments that enable specialized analysis with High-Performance Liquid Chromatography Equipment.  For nearly 40 years, Pickering Laboratories has offered its expertise and technical support to our customers in the environmental, clinicals and food markets to help them achieve the highest sensitivity and selectivity of analysis.  Our supported methods include the derivatization of Amino Acids, Carbamates, Glyphosate, Aminoglycoside Antibiotics, Polyether Antibiotics, Biogenic Amines, Aflatoxins, Paralytic Shellfish Toxins, and more.

Contact Information:

Rebecca Smith
Director of Operations
Pickering Laboratories, Inc.
1280 Space Park Way
Mountain View, CA 94043
www.pickeringlabs.com
support@pickeringlabs.com