Join UCT for an upcoming Separation Science Forensics & Toxicology e-Seminar November 28 & 30th, 2017!

Elena Lendoiro et al., published in Forensic Science International (/doi.org/10.1016/j.forsciint.2018.03.023) on the use of UCT’s Clean Screen® EtG solid phase extraction sorbent to determine the ethyl glucuronide (EtG) content of drivers suspected of alcohol/drugs driving cases under voluntary conditions. A validated analytical method for EtG was established which had a limit of quantification (LOQ) of 5 pg/mg of hair. It was found that 22 hair samples were positive for EtG where concentrations (20.7-1254.1pg/mg) were higher than the Society of Hair Testing (SoHT) cut-off for chronic alcohol consumption (≥30 pg EtG per mg of hair) in 21 cases.

UCT would like to extend our warmest congratulations to Sara Demspey, Timothy Lau, and Raquel Leblanc – Winners of the 2017 SOFT Excellence in SPE Awards. This award appropriately reflects the recent outstanding contributions they made to the field of Solid Phase Extraction in Forensic Science. 

UCT Inc., is known around the world for the manufacturing of the very finest in specialty chemicals including (N-trimethoxysilylpropyl)-polyethylenimine. These compounds are regularly employed by researchers in fields such as the production of methacrylate-based monoliths for highly efficient separations. In a recent paper published in Journal of Chromatography A by P. Simone et al., (Sapienza Università di Roma, Italy (http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chroma.2016.11.039)) capillary methacrylate-based monoliths were prepared for the high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) separation of both small molecules and large biomolecules. An efficient grafting from/to synthetic approach was adopted introducing a network of activated sites in the inner wall surface using the new silanization agent (N-trimethoxysilylpropyl)-polyethylenimine obtained from UCT.

UCT is known around the world as the first company to commercialize the QuEChERS ((Quick, Easy, Cheap, Effective, Rugged, and Safe) approach and is proud to support facilities involved in food safety testing using this technique. In a new paper published in Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry (DOI: 10.1021/acs.jafc.6b05051) by S. Genualdi et al., (U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Maryland, USA) the simultaneous analysis of 3- monochloropropane-1,2-diol (3-MCPD) and 1,3 dichloropropane-2-ol (1,3-DCP) was executed in asian style sauces. In this report UCT’s extraction mylar pouches (AOAC Blend) which include 6 g MgSO4 with 1.5 g of sodium acetate and dSPE clean-up pouches containing 400 mg of PSA and 400 mg of C18 were employed to perform the QuEChERS extraction prior to analysis of 3-MCPD and 1,3-DCP. This new method utilized direct analysis of the extract without derivatization using gas chromatography-triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS). The developed method was applied to 60 genuine soy sauce samples to determine if concentrations have changed since the FDA limit was set in 2008.