Lead concentration in breast milk of lactating women who were living in Tehran, Iran

It is obvious that lead intake is of concern not for its beneficial/essential effects on metabolism, but rather for its toxic actions, which can be especially damaging to children. The objective of this study was to analyze the concentration of lead in milk of mothers during prolonged lactation. Milk samples from 43 mothers were collected at 2 months postpartum. Lead was analyzed using atomic absorption spectrophotometer. The value of lead in human milk was 23.66 +/- 22.43 micro g/l. Lead concentration in human milk of mothers was higher than other countries and no significant relationship was found between levels of human milk lead and mother's education, age, parity, height and weight. The concentrations of lead in the milk samples were high, which makes a major public health hazard for the inhabitants, especially neonatal and children, of the industrial locations

Determination of metal content in crocus sativus L. corms in dormancy and waking stages

More than 30 mineral elements have been found with different key functions in helping plants and animals to survive and live healthy. As a direct result, they have always attracted the attention of scientists. The quest is to find some efficient analytical and quantitative procedures in this study to determine some mineral and trace elements of Iranian Crocus sativus L. corms. Several studies have been made using distinct methods and eventually, to achieve this purpose, three analytical methods were used as follows: Neutron Activation Analysis [NAA], Inductively Coupled Plasma-Optical Emission Spectroscopy [ICP-OES] and Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry [AAS]. Seventeen mineral and trace elements [Mg, Na, Ca, K, Mn, Zn, Cu, Pb, Hg, Ni, Fe, Co, Cd, Sr, Rb, Sc, and Br] were determined in Crocus sativus L. corms in two different physiological stages

The mineral elements content in saffron corms showed a wide variability and their concentrations in dormancy stage were higher than waking. Despite of the fact that K concentration was the highest among all mineral elements studied in both samples, it was nil for Sc, Co, Hg, Pb and Cd

Determination of residual methylmethacrylate monomer in denture base resins by gas chromatography

Acrylic base resins are widely used in orthopedics and dental surgery. It is generally accepted that due to the incomplete conversion of methyl methacrylate [MMA] monomer to the polymer form during polymerization of the resin, some MMA monomers remain in the hardened material. MMA monomer has been reported to cause abnormalities or lesions in several organs of animals. Study of the literatures showed that there are no perfect and valid methods for analysis of MMA. The aim of this study was to develop a simple and valid method for determination of MMA residual monomer in the denture base resins. We have developed and validated an analytical procedure employing gas chromatography with flame ionization detector [GC-FID], with temperature programming, and a close analogue internal standard for fast and repeatable analysis of MMA residual monomer contents in denture base polymers. For quantification of monomer, two calibration curves were used by two different methods of solution preparation and they were compared to each other. The assay was linear over the range of 0.03-0.6 mg/ml MMA with correlation coefficients [r[2]] of greater than 0.99. Accuracy, intra-day [Error<9.1%] and inter-day [Error<6.6%], precision [RSD<5.5% and RSD<6.5%, respectively] were in acceptable values over the examined concentration range. Limit of detection [LOD] and limit of Quantification [LOQ] for MMA were 0.01 and 0.02 mg/ml, respectively. In conclusion, the proposed method was a simple and fast assay for MMA residual monomer in denture base resins

Detection of morphine in opioid abusers hair by GC/MS

Thirty hair samples were collected from the male opioid abusers in which the presence of morphine in their urine samples was confirmed by Thin Layer Chromatography [TLC] analyses. The hair samples were washed, cut into small pieces and extracted in a mixture of methanol-triflouroacetic acid [9:1]. The methanolic phase was evaporated to dryness under nitrogen stream and derivitized by addition of N-methyl-N-trimethylsilyl triflouroacetamide [MSTFA] and 1% trimethyl iodosilane [TMIS] with sonication. One micro liter of each derivitized sample was injected into a Gas Chromatograph-Mass Spectrometer [GC/MS] system consisting of a capillary column and finnigan MS with selective ion monitoring [SIM] mode. The selected mass for ions codeine and morphine were 370 and 429, respectively. The limit of detection [LOD] was set at 0.03ng/mg of the hair. By using the above procedure, morphine was detectable in all of the examined samples and this method is capable to detec low levels of morphine in hair for a long period of time following the last intake of the drug