BackgroundMethanol is highly toxic to human beings and naturally exists in some beverages. Having access to an easy and cheap method for its determination is of great importance to increase the safety of use of these beverages. Our main aim is to evaluate methanol concentration of some alcoholic beverages in Iran black market and compare it with the European and US standards. Also, we evaluated the efficacy of a newly designed and produced chemical kit in determining the risk of methanol toxicity by drinking of such samples compared to gas chromatography method.MethodsMethanol content of suspected alcoholic beverages referred to forensic toxicology laboratory, Guilan province, Iran was measured using gas chromatography and a recently designed kit based on modified colorimetric chromotropic acid method.ResultsOf 1221 samples, 145 (11.9%) had no ethanol content, while in three samples (0.25%), methanol was high enough (700,000; 870,000; 920,000 mg/L) to cause severe methanol toxicity. Median [IQR] ethanol content of the suspected samples was 9% [3.7, 32.75]. Methanol was detected in 128 (10.48%) samples using gas chromatography method and 160 samples (13.1%) with designed kit with 100% sensitivity, 97.07% specificity, and 100% negative-predictive-value.ConclusionsAlcoholic beverages produced in local black market in Iran are not safe at all. The application of the new method is practical, rapid, easy, and accurate to evaluate the risk of methanol toxicity in suspected alcoholic drinks.
Methyl alcohol poisoning usually happens by use of contaminated ethanol. So, development of an easy and cost-effective method to determine methanol in these products can be helpful to diagnosemethanolintoxication. The aim of this paper is introducing a new kit based on chromotropic acid method for measuring the methanol content of alcoholic beverages. In this study, a new modified chromotropic acid method (as a kit) was used to determine of methanol in 700 self-made samples with diverse ethanol concentration prepared by "add found" technique. Briefly, in the proposed method, produced formaldehyde by methanol oxidation is reacted with chromotropic acid in a high acidic media. The quantification limit of this kit lies below the permitted dose and safe amount of methanol in the beverages regulated by the European Parliament and the Council. The attained results indicate Limit of Quantification of the method is1250 mg/Land all examined samples with more methanol amounts are easily determined with good accuracy and precision. As for the European standard about permitted dose of methanol in beverages (up to 4000 mg/lin 40% v/v of alcohol strength) and gained results, it seems, this proposed method practically enables rapid and easy quantitative determination of methanol in all kind of alcoholic strength with suitable accuracy and precision. However, conclusive conclusions in this area will require further examination in actual samples of alcoholic beverages. But, to the best of our knowledge, there isn't any report about such easy method.
Methanol naturally exists in all plant products. In recent years, the consumption of certain kinds of herbal distillates has led to blurred vision, leading to neurotic blindness in Iran. The advanced methods needed for determination of methanol are not available in all parts of poor and developing countries. In this study, we evaluated some herbal distillates’ methanol with a new kit compared to gas chromatography for determining the efficacy of the kit. A gas chromatography apparatus was used to determine methanol concentration of 57 herbal distillates. At the same time, a spectrophotometer device was also used along with a newly designed kit based on the modified chromotropic acid method for the same purpose. All examined samples have different amounts of methanol from 21 to 770 mg/l. The methanol content of all samples was higher than the used kit’s limit of quantification (5 mg/l). The attained results by two used methods were very close together in both minimum (21 and 22 mg/l) and maximum (770 and 690 mg/l) amounts. The comparison of results was shown, and some of available herbal distillates in Iran have enough amounts of methanol to create chronic type of methanol poisoning. Our results suggested that the used kit had suitable efficacy for quantitative determination of herbal distillates’ methanol content. It was proved that the type of the herbal distillate did not affect the kit’s function. The new kit can be easily used with minimal equipment for quality control of herbal distillates in food industry area.
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