Sample Preparation News

The use of chemical weapon nerve agents is banned by international convention and widely considered a human rights violation. Nonetheless, nerve agents have been used in attacks on military personnel and civilians in Iraq, Japan, Malaysia, Britain and Syria. For...

In the past decade, use of cannabinoids in the United States has increased tremendously. This increase has been primarily in marijuana-infused products, initially as food products and now as beverages. The three most common beverage matrices involve fermented (beer/ale), brewed...

Carfentanil (methyl 1-(2-phenylethyl)-4-[phenyl(propanoyl)amino]piperidine-4- carboxylate) is the most potent opioid used commercially with a quantitative potency approximately 10,000 times that of morphine and 100 times that of fentanyl. The drug is marketed under the trade name ‘Wildnil’ as a general anesthetic...

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) estimated that 76% of drug related fatalities during 2016 were related to the misuse of opioids. The UNODC also reported that the production of opium and cocaine are at the highest...

Gallium-68 (68Ga, t1/2 ¼ 67.8 min) owns great potential in nuclear medicine being extensively used in labelling of biomolecules like somatostatin and PSMA inhibitor analogues. 68Ga decay to stable Zinc-68 (68Zn) nuclide via electron capture (11%) and positron decay (89%)...

With the mounting interest in hemp and cannabis products for medicinal and recreational use around the world, the need for suitable analytical methods to identify and determine the concentration of cannabinoids is essential for ensuring consumer safety. Traditional analyses for...

Mephedrone (4-methylmethcathinone) is a synthetic cathinone derivative which has a similar chemical structure and effects to other stimulant recreational drugs such as amphetamine. Mephedrone was first introduced to the United Kingdom recreational drug market in the years 2007-2008 and has...

Chlorine sanitizers used in washing fresh and fresh-cut produce can lead to generation of disinfection by-products (DBPs) that are harmful to human health. Monitoring of DBPs is necessary to protect food safety but comprehensive analytical methods have been lacking. In...

In a recent paper published in Drug Testing and Analysis (Richard Bade et al., (doi: 10.1002/dta.2484)), UCT’s Xtract® solid phase extraction sorbent was used to extract a diverse range of new psychoactive substances (NPS) from samples of waste water. The...

In a recent study by Guillermo Alberto Keller et al., published in Journal of Opioid Management (http://www.wmpllc.org/ojs-2.4.2/index.php/jom), UCT’s Clean Screen® DAU was used to extract Propoxyphene (DPX)  and norpropoxyphene (NPX) from human plasma and analyzed by GC-MS. Plasma samples (500...