LCGC North America-04-01-2005

When is it time to throw in the towel?

This month's installment of "Column Watch" is the conclusion of a two-part series in which Ron Majors examines the trends in column introductions at Pittcon 2005. Here, he discusses gas chromatography columns, sample preparation products, hardware, and accessories.

Co-occurrence of several mycotoxins (deoxynivalenol, zearalenone, T-2-toxin, HT-2 toxin) produced by field fungi, such as Fusarium graminearum and Fusarium culmorum, requires several analysis methods for their characterization. A reliable method for the determination of type A- and B-trichothecenes and zearalenone in cereal-based samples is presented. To achieve optimal mass spectrometric detection, electrospray ionization (ESI) and atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI) were compared. Best results were obtained with ESI by implementing a two-period switching for the ionization polarity. The limit of quantification differs for each individual substance within the range 1–10 ppb. Mean recoveries using a standardized clean-up procedure were in the 54–93% range.

process is interesting and involved, and in this month's installment of "MS - The Practical Art," Michael Balogh continues the Profiles in Practice series by exploring this topic with featured scientists Michele Kelly and Mark Kershaw.

Short Courses

The authors discuss a solid-phase extraction (SPE) clean-up procedure for drugs present in biofluids.

A thorough consideration of 30 nominated instruments by 21 nominating editors resulted in a clear runaway for the top product at this year's Pittcon. The gold award was presented to JEOL (Peabody, Massachusetts) for its DART ionization technology for MS.

Calendar

LC-MS monitoring of the drug clozapine is detailed along with a description of the overall system architecture, workflow, and maintenance routines that spport a large-scale drug monitoring program.