Dr Ehrenstorfer: what’s new this month – February 2022
At first sight, the February arrival of snowdrops and irises outside our UK office seems a welcome early glimpse of spring. But, according to scientists, first flowers in Britain are now appearing a month earlier than in the 1980s, with serious consequences for the environment. These remarkable February blooms are therefore a reminder that one of science’s key roles is to furnish proof of the problems we need to fix in our world – which, of course, is also the purpose of Dr Ehrenstorfer’s extensive reference materials portfolio. Here, we invite you to take a look at our latest product updates, and get in touch to find out how we can help your laboratory thrive throughout 2022.
1. Pharmaceutical and veterinary compounds and metabolites
The use of antidepressant drugs had been on an upward trend for decades before the pandemic caused a huge spike in demand - taking antidepressants’ global market value to about $28.6 billion in 2020. But the rise of these psychiatric treatments also has alarming consequences for the environment – with waste from medications contaminating the urban water cycle, rivers, and oceans, as well as bioaccumulating in aquatic life. This month, we are releasing 18 new reference materials for pharmaceutical and veterinary compounds and metabolites - including fluvoxamine and trazodone, as well as Parkinson’s disease therapeutics and beta blockers.
View our range of pharmaceutical and veterinary compound products here.
2. Stable isotope labelled compounds
Just over a hundred years since Frederick Toddy first conceived the word ‘isotope’ – from the Greek isos topos, meaning ‘same place’ – stable isotope labels enable the accurate analysis of compounds in many complex matrices, and in fields ranging from art to oceanography. The technique’s success has also been driven by the invention of new and innovative mass spectrometry devices, as well as the development of stable isotope internal standards to minimise measurement uncertainty. This month, we’ve added 10 new stable isotope standards across many of the Dr Ehrenstorfer product categories – including cannabinoids, hydrocarbons and petrochemicals, Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs).
3. Phenols and aromatic compounds
Phenols have a similar molecular structure to alcohols, but form stronger hydrogen bonds, and are therefore more soluble in water, with higher boiling points. Highly toxic and caustic, they are nevertheless widely used in low concentrations in household products such as disinfectants and mouthwashes. They are also employed as intermediates in the manufacture of plastics, explosives and pharmaceuticals, including aspirin. We offer more than 650 products in this category, with five new reference materials added this month – including standards for nitrobenzene, a substance listed as possibly carcinogenic to humans by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, which can also cause methemoglobinemia and liver damage in high concentrations.
View our range of phenols and aromatic compounds here.