Level of natural hepatotoxin (Indospicine) contamination in Australian camel meat

Camel meat production for human consumption and pet food manufacture accounts for a relatively small part of overall red meat production in Australia. Reliable statistical data for the Australian production and consumption of camel meat are not available; however, it is estimated that 300,000 feral camels roam within the desert of central Australia, with an annual usage of more than 3000 camels for human consumption, 2000 for pet food manufacture and a smaller number for live export. Despite a small Australian camel meat production level, the usage of camel meat for pet food has been restricted in recent years due to reports of serious liver disease and death in dogs consuming camel meat. This camel meat was found to contain residues of indospicine, a non-proteinogenic amino acid found in certain Indigofera spp., and associated with mild to severe liver disease in diverse animals after dietary exposure to this hepatotoxin. The extent of indospicine-contaminated Australian camel meat was previously unknown, and this study ascertains the prevalence of such residue in Australian camel meat. In this study, indospicine levels in ex situ (95 samples collected from an abattoir in Queensland) and in situ (197 samples collected from camels after field culling in central Australia) camel meat samples were quantitated using a validated ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS). The quantitation results showed 46.7% of the in situ- and 20.0% of the ex situ-collected camel meat samples were contaminated by indospicine (more than the limit of detection (LOD) of 0.05 mg kg^–1 fresh weight). The overall indospicine concentration was higher (p < 0.05) in the in situ-collected samples. Indospicine levels detected in the present study are considered to be low; however, a degree of caution must still be exercised, since the tolerable daily intake for indospicine is currently not available for risk estimation.     

Determination of olaquindox,carbadox and cyadox in animal feeds by ultra-performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry

Olaquindox, carbadox, and cyadox are chemically synthesised antibacterial and growth-promoting agents for animals. At high doses they may exert mutagenicity and hepatic and adrenal toxicities in animals. Regrettably, these substances are frequently abused or misused when added into animal feeds. Thus, developing a sensitive and reliable method for simultaneous determination of olaquindox, carbadox, and cyadox in different kinds of animal feeds is crucially important for food safety monitoring. In this paper we optimised instrumental conditions, extraction solvents, solid phase extraction cartridges, and pH of the loading solvents on the Oasis HLB cartridge. Under the optimal conditions, mean recoveries ranged from 74.1 to 111%, and intra-day and inter-day variations were lower than 14.6% and 10.8%, respectively. The limits of quantification for olaquindox, carbadox, and cyadox were 0.05 mg kg^?1, 0.10 mg kg^?1, and 0.025 mg kg^?1, respectively. The proposed method uses ultra-performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry and is sensitive and reliable for the simultaneous determination of olaquindox, carbadox, and cyadox in three kinds of animal feeds (specifically, mixed feed, concentrated feed, and additive premixed feed). This method has good precision, high sensitivity, and good reproducibility, and thus it can be used for convenient and accurate determination of olaquindox, carbadox, and cyadox in different kinds of animal feeds.     

Mass spectrometry of peptides and proteins from human blood

It is difficult to convey the accelerating rate and growing importance of mass spectrometry applications to human blood proteins and peptides. Mass spectrometry can rapidly detect and identify the ionizable peptides from the proteins in a simple mixture and reveal many of their post‐translational modifications. However, blood is a complex mixture that may contain many proteins first expressed in cells and tissues. The complete analysis of blood proteins is a daunting task that will rely on a wide range of disciplines from physics, chemistry, biochemistry, genetics, electromagnetic instrumentation, mathematics and computation. Therefore the comprehensive discovery and analysis of blood proteins will rank among the great technical challenges and require the cumulative sum of many of mankind's scientific achievements together. A variety of methods have been used to fractionate, analyze and identify proteins from blood, each yielding a small piece of the whole and throwing the great size of the task into sharp relief. The approaches attempted to date clearly indicate that enumerating the proteins and peptides of blood can be accomplished. There is no doubt that the mass spectrometry of blood will be crucial to the discovery and analysis of proteins, enzyme activities, and post‐translational processes that underlay the mechanisms of disease. At present both discovery and quantification of proteins from blood are commonly reaching sensitivities of ～1 ng/mL. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., Mass Spec Rev 30:685–732, 2011     

高效液相色谱-高分辨质谱法鉴定拉萨大黄化学成分

建立了高效液相色谱-高分辨质谱法分析鉴定拉萨大黄化学成分。选用Agilent Zorbax SB-C18柱（150 mm×4.6 mm×5 μm）,以乙腈和水为流动相进行梯度洗脱,流速0.5 mL/min;采用电喷雾离子源,在正、负离子模式下对拉萨大黄提取物进行一级和多级全扫描质谱分析。综合分析化合物的色谱和质谱行为,并结合对照品、文献和数据库等相关数据鉴定化合物。在负离子模式下,鉴定出63种化合物;正离子模式下,鉴定出54种化合物。所检测到的化合物包括22种鞣质类、28种茋类、6种黄酮类、3种苯丙酸类、2种苯丁酮类和2种有机酸类,其中有53种化合物为在该药材中首次发现,且未发现蒽醌类成分。该方法快速、灵敏,不仅提高了拉萨大黄复杂基质中微量化合物的鉴定效率,同时实现了对拉萨大黄提取物中不同类型化合物的分析鉴别,为进一步阐明拉萨大黄的药效物质基础及质控标准提供了科学依据。     

An approach to the measurement of shunt resistance of individual subcells in thin‐film tandem devices

In this paper, the selective illumination approach is adopted to separately extract the shunt resistance of the individual subcells belonging to a tandem cell. The method relies on simple theoretical considerations and is based on the measurement of the current–voltage characteristic of the tandem cell by alternately keeping one of the subcells under dark conditions. Numerical simulations are employed to support the reliability of the technique, which is experimentally tested on micromorph devices deposited onto glass covered by a V‐shaped transparent conducting oxide and subject to different thermal treatments. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Characterization of tandem organic solar cells comprising subcells of identical absorber material

Recently organic tandem solar cells with record efficiency had been shown comprising identical absorber materials in both subcells. Such structures pose new challenges for characterization. The standard test methods for measuring spectral response of tandem solar cells can not be applied. The standard procedures demand for different bias illumination during measuring spectral response allowing to select the subcell being current limiting. With subcells comprising identical absorber materials, thus having identical absorption spectra, such a selection is not trivial. In this paper, we show that with the help of detailed optical simulations of such tandem organic solar cells, their characterization is possible, and we apply the proposed method to a sample structure. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

一步法合成(E)-1,3-二取代丙-2-烯-1-酮类化合物

报道了一种温和的,以二氧化锰为氧化剂,通过串联氧化反应-Wittig反应-氧化反应,一步制备(E)-1,3-二取代丙-2-烯-1-酮类化合物的合成方法。使用该方法,我们合成7个具有代表性的化合物。     

高效液相色谱串联质谱测定武夷岩茶中草甘膦残留量的方法探讨

采用高效液相色谱串联质谱建立了武夷岩茶样品中草甘膦的残留量的测定方法。样品经水固相萃取和茶叶专用萃取柱(TPT)净化后,在硼酸盐缓冲液中与9-芴甲基氯甲酸酯(FMOC-Cl)进行衍生化反应,以1%乙酸铵溶液和乙腈为流动相,质谱检测采用电喷雾正离子化模式和多反应监测模式。结果表明,草甘膦在1~10 ng/mL范围内线性良好,线性相关系数r=0.998。通过对空白武夷岩茶样品进行4个加标水平的添加回收实验(n=5),草甘膦的平均回收率和相对标准偏差(RSD)分别为87.3%~98.0%和3.46~5.12。     

同位素稀释-气相色谱-串联质谱法同时测定肉制品中16种欧盟优控多环芳烃

目的 基于分子印迹特异性净化及同位素稀释-气相色谱-串联质谱法建立同时检测肉制品中16种欧盟优控多环芳烃的分析方法。方法 样品中加入氘代同位素内标,经正己烷-二氯甲烷(7:3, V:V)混合溶液提取,特异性分子印迹柱净化,采用DB-EUPAH色谱柱分离,在多反应监测(multiple reaction monitoring, MRM)模式下采集,内标法定量。结果 为降低基质效应,采用基质匹配标准曲线的定量方法。在0.2～200.0 ng/mL范围内,16种欧盟优控多环芳烃均有良好的线性关系,线性相关系数(r²)均大于0.9990,在1.0、5.0、10.0μg/kg3个浓度水平下进行加标回收实验, 16种欧盟优控多环芳烃的回收率在85.9%～118.3%之间,相对标准偏差(n=6)在0.4%～6.6%之间,方法的检出限为0.03～0.10μg/kg,定量限为0.10～0.30μg/kg。结论 该方法前处理简便高效、灵敏度高、准确度高、抗干扰能力强,可同时实现肉制品中16种欧盟优控多环芳烃的测定。     

Identification of In Vitro Metabolites of Synthetic Phenolic Antioxidants BHT,BHA, and TBHQ by LC-HRMS/MS

Butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) and its analogs, butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) and tert-butyl-hydroquinone (TBHQ), are widely used synthetic preservatives to inhibit lipid oxidation in the food, cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries. Despite their widespread use, little is known about their human exposure and related biotransformation products. The metabolism of these compounds was investigated using in vitro incubations with human and rat liver fractions. Liquid chromatography coupled to high-resolution tandem mass spectrometry was employed to detect and characterize stable and reactive species formed via oxidative metabolism, as well as phase II conjugates. Several oxidative metabolites have been detected, as well as glutathione, glucuronide, and sulfate conjugates, many of which were not previously reported. A combination of accurate mass measurements, MS/MS fragmentation behavior, and isotope-labeling studies were used to elucidate metabolite structures.