Russian scientists have developed a system to quickly and reliably detect toxic gossip in food. This was reported by the press service of the RNF.
Cotton contains the poisonous compound gossypol, which is concentrated in the seed grains and roots. This substance is designed to protect the plant from pests and exposure to UV radiation. In high doses, gossypol is extremely toxic to humans, causing loss of appetite and bleeding, and can also lead to infertility. People cannot eat this toxin with cottonseed oil alone: cottonseed is used to feed animals and can slowly build up in their meat. A safe dose of gossypol is considered to be 450 ppm, which is considered a very low concentration that is difficult to detect without laboratory equipment.
Experts from Novosibirsk State University and colleagues from other institutes created a simple test to determine the presence of gossip through chemiluminescence. The new approach is based on the use of terbium-based metal-organic coordination polymers. The fact is that terbium belongs to the family of lanthanides – metals whose compounds can glow, that is, glow in response to irradiation. In the composition of the polymer, terbium ions are connected by organic bridges, which make it possible to correct this glow and increase its intensity. When interacting with the polymer, the gossip absorbs some of the energy necessary for radiation and is lost. Thus, it is possible to simply and quickly detect the presence of a toxic substance in a sample and determine its concentration by changing the intensity of the radiation.
During testing, the system was able to detect gossip at a concentration of 0.76 nM. This is the best sensitivity indicator among all test systems based on metal-organic polymers, which is about 5 times higher than analogues. In addition, the test was able to detect the presence of gosypol at a concentration of 1.89 nM in the oil. This is a particularly difficult task because the oil is insoluble in water and must be mixed with alcohol.
The authors of the development hope that test systems will soon enter the market for rapid analysis of products.
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