A Rapid Screening Analysis of Antioxidant Compounds in Native Australian Food Plants Using Multiplexed Detection with Active Flow Technology Columns.

Conventional techniques for identifying antioxidant and phenolic compounds in native Australian food plants are laborious and time-consuming. Here, we present a multiplexed detection technique that reduces analysis time without compromising separation performance. This technique is achieved using Active Flow Technology-Parallel Segmented Flow (AFT-PSF) columns. Extracts from cinnamon myrtle (Backhousia myrtifolia) and lemon myrtle (Backhousia citriodora) leaves were analysed via multiplexed detection using an AFT-PSF column with underivatised UV-VIS, mass spectroscopy (MS), and the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH(•)) derivatisation for antioxidants as detection methods. A number of antioxidant compounds were detected in the extracts of each leaf extract

Post-treatment levels of plasma 25- and 1,25-dihydroxy vitamin D and mortality in men with aggressive prostate cancer.

Vitamin D may reduce mortality from prostate cancer (PC). We examined the associations of post-treatment plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D and 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D concentrations with PC mortality. Participants were PC cases from the New South Wales Prostate Cancer Care. All contactable and consenting participants, at 4.9 to 8.6 years after diagnosis, were interviewed and had plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) and 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D (1,25(OH)2D) measured in blood specimens. Cox regression allowing for left-truncation was used to calculate adjusted mortality hazards ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) for all-cause and PC-specific mortality in relation to vitamin D levels and other potentially-predictive variables. Of the participants (n = 111; 75·9% response rate), there were 198 deaths from any cause and 41 from PC in the study period. Plasma 25(OH)D was not associated with all-cause or PC-specific mortality (p-values > 0·10). Plasma 1,25(OH)2D was inversely associated with all-cause mortality (HR for highest relative to lowest quartile = 0·45; 95% CI: 0·29-0·69), and PC-specific mortality (HR = 0·40; 95% CI: 0·14-1·19). These associations were apparent only in men with aggressive PC: all-cause mortality HR = 0·28 (95% CI·0·15-0·52; p-interaction = 0·07) and PC-specific mortality HR = 0·26 (95% CI: 0·07-1.00). Time spent outdoors was also associated with lower all-cause (HR for 4th relative to 1st exposure quartile = 0·42; 95% CI: 0·24-0·75) and PC-specific (HR = 0·48; 95% CI: 0·14-1·64) mortality, although the 95% CI for the latter was wide. The inverse association between post-treatment plasma 1,25(OH)2D levels and all-cause and PC-specific mortality in men with aggressive PC, suggest a possible beneficial effect of vitamin D supplementation in these men

The Future of Liquid Chromatographic Separations Should Include Post Column Derivatisations: The perspective from the analysis of vitamin D

The coupling of high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with post column derivatisation (HPLC-PCD) will increase the sensitivity of an instrument to the target molecule, improve specificity by selective derivatisation to remove potential interferences from the matrix, and be cost-effective; all these factors may well prove that PCD is an alternative to existing techniques for routine analysis. Calcidiol (25(OH)D) concentrations are used in the determination of vitamin D deficiency in humans, and there is growing interest and demand in its analysis with some controversy surrounding the sensitivity and specificity of its detection. 25(OH)D analysis is currently performed using either competitive binding assays or HPLC analysis, coupled with detection by a variety of means, such as, UV–Vis absorption, electrochemical or mass spectroscopy (MS) detection. HPLC coupled with MS (HPLC-MS) detection is the gold standard for 25(OH)D analysis due to its sensitivity and selectivity compared to all other techniques, however, its utility is limited by its high cost. This article reviews the current status of HPLC based techniques in the detection of 25(OH)D (and its metabolites), and further explores the use of HPLC-PCD

Packing procedures for high efficiency, short ion-exchange columns for rapid separation of inorganic anions

An optimised packing procedure for the production of high efficiency, short, particle-packed ion-exchange columns is reported. Slurry-packing techniques were applied to a series of interconnected short columns, with the columns situated intermediate between the inlet and outlet ends of the series being used for separations. The fast separation and determination of inorganic anions was achieved using short (4 mm ID, 30 mm long) columns packed with Dionex AS20 high-capacity anion-exchange stationary phase. Seven inorganic anions (bromate, chloride, chlorate, nitrate, sulfate, chromate and perchlorate) are separated in 2.6 min using a hydroxide gradient and a flow-rate of 1.8 mL/min (total analysis time including re-equilibration was 3.5 min). Under isocratic conditions, the home-packed columns exhibited efficiency values of 43,000 N/m for chloride at a flow-rate of 0.3 mL/min, compared to 54,000 N/m for a commercial 250 mm AS20 column at the same flow-rate. However, the short columns gave approximately a threefold higher sample throughput. The short, home-packed columns could be produced reproducibly and gave consistent performance over extended periods of usage

Improving quantification using curtain flow chromatography columns in the analysis of labile compounds: a study on amino acids.

The performance of curtain flow chromatography column technology with MS detection was evaluated for the analysis of labile compounds. The curtain flow column design allows for separations that are faster and/or more sensitive than conventional columns, depending on how exactly the curtain flow column is configured. For example, when mass spectral detection is employed, the curtain flow column can yield separations that are 5-times faster than conventional columns when the curtain flow and the conventional columns have the same internal diameter. Or when the internal diameter of the conventional column is reduced in order to yield the same analytical through-put as the curtain flow column, the sensitivity on the curtain flow column can be as much as 66-fold higher than the conventional column. As a consequence of the higher analytical through-put less standardization is required in the analysis of labile compounds because less sample degradation is apparent. Consequently the sample integrity is preserved yielding data of a higher quality

Ferric reducing antioxidant potential (FRAP) of antioxidants using reaction flow chromatography.

High performance liquid chromatography coupled with post column derivatisation (HPLC-PCD) may be used to profile the antioxidant content of a sample. There are, however, drawbacks in the use of HPLC-PCD setups; namely the high volume reaction coils that are typically used lowering the observed separation efficiency. Reaction flow chromatography has the ability to overcome these inefficiencies by using a more efficient mixing technique inside the outlet fitting itself, post column reaction loops can be removed with resulting improvement in signal to noise response, plus the separation efficiency is maintained. We assessed two methods of HPLC-PCD antioxidant analysis based on the ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assay in both conventional and reaction flow HPLC-PCD modes. It was found that the reaction flow technique demonstrated significant advantages over the conventional technique in terms of signal to noise, linear range, precision and observed separation efficiency

Using curtain flow second-generation silica monoliths to improve separations at pressures less than 400 bar

The performance of a second-generation analytical-scale silica monolith utilizing the curtain flow (CF) column design was studied for the first time. The performance of the CF column was compared to a conventional monolith column under isocratic conditions, and the new column achieved a gain in theoretical plates by as much as 50%, with almost Gaussian bands being obtained (asymmetry factor of 1.02). Detection sensitivity increased by as much as 125% under optimal detection conditions. The sensitivity and performance was also chromatographically compared to a core-shell column under both gradient and isocratic elution for a model compound (polystyrene) and a natural product (coffee sample) with sensitivity gains of up to 365%. The second-generation monolithic CF column is an excellent tool that can be tuned to provide highly efficient, highly sensitive, high-throughput, and low volumetric detection analyses, using conventional HPLC systems

The performance of second generation silica monoliths, operating in parallel segmented flow mode

This study investigates the chromatographic performance of second generation monoliths in its conventional design, as well as replacing the standard outlet with an Active Flow Technology (AFT) assembly to minimise inefficient flow contributions. The AFT coupled monolith resulted in up to 50% improvement on the conventional monolith's efficiency and a 16% improvement in sensitivity. Exploitation of the current second generation monolith's silica infrastructure and AFT coupling in the parallel segmented flow (PSF) mode of operation would benefit high through-put analyses that demand highly efficient, sensitive, low volume detection, front end separation solutions utilizing conventional HPLC systems

Postcolumn derivatization of amino acids using reaction flow chromatography columns with fluorescence detection: A fast new approach to selective derivatization techniques

Reaction flow (RF) chromatography with fluorescamine reagent and fluorescence detection (FLD) was used for the analysis of amino acids. The performance of RF chromatography was tested against several optimized conventional postcolumn derivatization (PCD) methods. RF columns achieved greater sensitivity compared to conventional PCD methods, without the need for reaction loops, which resulted in more efficient separations. The RF-PCD method also achieved limits of detection (LOD) from the low picomole to subnanomole range. The calibration data of the RF-PCD technique yielded R2 ≥ 0.99 and % relative standard deviation in peak areas ranging from 0.34% to 5%. Through reaction flow chromatography, multiplexed detection was also achieved allowing the monitoring and analysis of derivatized and nonderivatized flow streams simultaneously