The Column-02-12-2018

Analytica will take place from 10–13 April 2018 at the Messe München, in Munich, Germany. The Analytica conference is Analytica’s scientific highlight and will take place at the International Congress Center (ICM) from 10–12 April 2018. The increasing digitization in the laboratory and the handling of the resulting flood of data are big focus this year. This preview will shed more light on what to expect.

The Column spoke to Ricardo Lopez from the University of Zaragoza, in Spain, about his work characterizing the composition of the vapours from wine during consumption using an automated gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) technique.

Waters Corporation and Malvern Panalytical have announced a co-marketing agreement to advance the analysis of polymers.

Carolin Huhn was awarded the inaugural 2018 LCGC Europe/HTC Innovation Award on 25 January 2018 at the 15th International Symposium on Hyphenated Techniques in Chromatography (HTC-15) in Cardiff, UK.

Researchers from the University of Seville have developed a method for the determination of pollutants in leafy and root vegetables using UAE, d-SPE, and LC–MS/MS.

PharmaFluidics has announced it has raised 7.3 million euros in its bid to expand commercialization of its novel micro-chip device.

A HILIC–MS/MS method to separate and quantify the polar bioactive molecules present in royal jelly has been developed by researchers from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, in Greece.

Eurofins Scientific has announced the acquisition of Tsing Hua Testing & Analysis Co., Ltd. (Tsing Hua), a leading environmental testing company in Taiwan.

Analytica will take place from 10–13 April 2018 at the Messe München, in Munich, Germany. The Analytica conference is a highlight of Analytica and will take place at the International Congress Center (ICM) from 10–12 April 2018. The increasing digitization in the laboratory and the handling of the resulting flood of data are the big focus this year. This preview will shed more light on what to expect.

Terpenes contribute heavily to the senses of smell and taste and thus are integral to industries like herb and spice producers, essential oil manufacturers, cannabis growers and distributors, breweries, and distilleries, among countless others. Current terpene analysis is performed using gas chromatography–flame ionization detection (GC–FID) and GC–mass spectrometry (MS); however, baseline separation is needed for quantification because many terpenes of interest are isomers, which can lead to relatively long run times. Vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) spectroscopy can spectrally distinguish isomers and quantitatively deconvolve coeluting peaks, allowing for significant reduction in GC run time. This article outlines a method for the analysis of 21 terpenes in a variety of samples with a sub 9-min elution time.

Food analysis is often handled less thoroughly than pharmaceutical analysis because of the smaller life-threatening risk expected from foodstuffs. However, food analysis is still a major focus for chromatographers from a scientific and an analytical point of view. Adoption of modern “in‑silico” techniques, such as chromatographic modelling, offer analysts new possibilities for method development.

Synthetic azo- and non-azo dyes were once commonly used as food colourings in many countries. Food safety regulators in Europe, the U.S, and other countries have now banned the use of these synthetic dyes in food because of their potential genotoxic and carcinogenic effects. In some countries, however, these dyes are still being used, especially in spices. There are currently no published legal limits for these illegal food dyes, but any detectable amount is deemed unacceptable. Thus, any analytical method used to test foods for these illegal dyes must be highly sensitive. Conventional methods are only able to provide limits of quantitation (LOQs) of 10–1000 ppb for these illegal food dyes. A reversed-phase ultrahigh-pressure liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC–MS/MS) method has been developed that reliably achieves LOQs that are three-to-four orders of magnitude lower than conventional methods while also providing improved accuracy and reproducibility.

The 10th conference of The World Mycotoxin Forum will take place in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, on 12–14 March 2018. This preview offers a glimpse of what can be expected.

Click the title above to open The Column February 2018 Europe & Asia issue, Volume 14, Number 2, in an interactive PDF format.

Click the title above to open The Column February 2018 North American issue, Volume 14, Number 2, in an interactive PDF format.