A number of plant indicators have been used in agriculture from early times because the vegetation reflects soil pH, soil moisture, soil fertility, etc. During the decades of 1960s and 1970s Japan has experienced severe environmental degradation such as air, water and soil pollution. Plant indicators, in those days, were considered to be a substitute for the physical and/or chemical measurement. Plant indicators practically used in those days were a visible injury to plants, a combination and/or diversity of epiphytes, aquatic plants and algae, a distribution of heavy metal resistant plants, etc. Environmental pollutants absorbed or adsorbed by plants, e. g., heavy metals, sulfur, fluoride, etc., have been considered as indices of environmental pollution. Dendrochronology was established, in the early years of the twentieth century in the U. S. A., to study past environmental changes. Although some pioneer studies on tree-ring information have been carried out in Japan, since 1920s, most of the early studies were not free from the dating error. In Japan, dendrochronology in the strict sense, was started in 1960s and has been rapidly progressed since 1970s. Besides environmental pollution, past natural disasters such as landslide, typhoon, and flood are also clarified by the dendrochronological studies. Another aspect of plant indicators is focused on future environment. Today, the decreasing biological diversity is recognized as one of the most serious global environmental problems. In this context, plant indicators in these days are not merely a substitute for the physical and/or chemical monitoring system but also the indicator for past environment and the goal of future environment.

抄録全体を表示

The latest statistics on the drug abuse show the rapid increase of the cases by methamphetamine among adolescent boys and girls according to the official report by National Police Agency and newspapers. On the other hand, androgenic anabolic steroids (AAS) are the most notorious dope agent abused by sportsmen. Doping cases by world class Japanese athletes involved a disqualification due to steroid doping. One possible reason for such a trend is the development of trafficking route through the illegal immigrants or private import of the steroid products via Internet. Non medical use of steroid hormones in society is an escalating problem in some countries. Further more, several steroid hormones and its precursors, e. g. pregnenolone and dehydroepiandrosterone, are widely sold on the U. S. market as memory enhancing or anti-aging dietary supplements. Therefore, the introduction of the strategy against steroid doping in sports seems to be useful to reduce the approaching steroid problem in Japan to a minimum. The current testing procedure for hormone doping involve the high sensitive detection of trace amount of AAS by high resolution GC-MS after extraction using an immuno-affinity column, and the direct detection of exogenously administered natural steroids by measuring the carbon isotope ratio of the steroid skeleton. This paper refers to the recent advances in dope analysis in sports. The results obtained through the tests will also be briefly discussed.

抄録全体を表示

We looked for a direct correlation between the suggested effect of fenvalerate and trans-cypermethrin as tumor promoters, and the documented elevations in the activities of lysosomal enzymes in various types of tumors. Results of this study demonstrate that the pyrethroids, fenvalerate and trans-cypermethrin, significantly enhanced the activities of the hepatic lysosomal enzymes, arylsulfatase A (ASA), arylsulfatase B (ASB), β-glucuronidase and cathepsin D in live mice. These increased activities correlate directly with fenvalerate or trans-cypermethrin treatment, in a significantly dose-dependent manner. Hepatic ASA, ASB and β-glucuronidase from untreated mice gave significantly elevated relative activity values when preincubated with both pyrethroids as compared to those of controls. Moreover, heat stability study showed that the specific activities of these enzymes from mice that were treated with fenvalerate or trans-cypermethrin correlated well with the specific activities of their corresponding controls from vehicletreated animals. These findings may show the possible tumor promotion effect of the pyrethroids, fenvalerate and trans-cypermethrin.

抄録全体を表示

We previously reported the efficiency of polyamide column in the concentration of polychlorodibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs) from environmental water samples. This study further applied the polyamide column to concentrate of the other organic compounds causing the pollution of waters : polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polychlorobiphenyls (PCBs) and chlorophenols (CPs) from their aqueous solutions. The model compounds used were : benzo [a] pyrene, anthracene and monotrichloropyrenes (PAHs) ; KC300, KC400 and KC500 (PCBs) ; and 2, 4, 6-trichlorophenol, 2, 3, 4, 6-tetrachlorophenol and pentachlorophenol (CPs). The mixture of these compounds in much higher concentrations compared to their putative environmental existence were quantitatively adsorbed to the polyamide column. The fractional elution of the test compounds from the column was attained with ethanol (PCBs and polar PAHs), dichloromethane (nonpolar PAHs) and 5% acetic acid in dichloromethane (CPs plus PCDDs), in this order. Each fraction could be analyzed by either high performance liquid chromatograph equipped with a fluorescence monitor in the case of PAHs or gas chromatograph with an electron capture detector for PCBs and CPs. The polyamide column will be useful for the analysis of trace amounts of organic pollutants in environmental waters.

抄録全体を表示

A method for the determination of 2-mercaptobenzimidazole (MBI) type antioxidants in rubber products by HPLC was developed. The analytical conditions to separate 2-mercapto-4-methylbenzimidazole (4MMBI) from 2-mercapto-5-methylbenzimidazole (5MMBI) by HPLC and to extract MBI type antioxidants from rubber products were examined in detail. The recommended method was as follows. MBI type antioxidants was extracted with methanol five times. The evaporation residue of the extract was dissolved in water and injected to HPLC. The HPLC conditions were as follows : column, CAPCELL PAK C18 (4.6 i. d.×250mm) ; column temperature, 40°C ; mobile phase, 0.1 M phosphate buffer (pH 6.5)-acetonitrile (87 : 13) ; flow rate, 1.0ml/min ; detection wavelength, 304nm (MBI, 4MMBI) and 307 nm (5MMBI). This method was applied to determine MBI type antioxidants in 12 commercial rubber boots. Consequently, 11.5-67.7 μg/g of MBI was detected in 4 samples, but 4MMBI and 5MMBI were not detected in any samples.

抄録全体を表示

Semi-microcolumn high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with a columnswitching system was connected to electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) for the analysis of methamphetamine (MA) and amphetamine (AP), a main metabolite of MA. Urine samples were directly introduced to the system. After removal of other components of the sample matrix by the column-switching process, both MA and AP were successfully analyzed with enantiomeric resolution by the use of β-cyclodextrin phenylcarbamate-bonded (phCD) semi-microcolumn, accompanied by spectral information obtained with ESI-MS. Linear calibration curves were obtained for all the analytes throughout the concentration range from 1 ng/ml to 5 μg/ml. The relative standard deviation for peak area ranged from 1.41 to 2.07% at 0.1 μg/ml for the four enantiomer peaks. Detection limits observed for MA and AP enantiomers were 20 ng/ml and 50 ng/ml in the spectrum scanning mode, and 0.5 ng/ml and 1 ng/ml in the single ion monitoring (SIM) mode, respectively. The HPLC/ESI-MS system studied here appeared highly sensitive and useful towards its forensic applications.

抄録全体を表示

Black and white hair samples were obtained from black-, gray-(i. e., a mixture of black and white hair) and white-haired methamphetamine (MA) users, and MA and amphetamine (AP) were determined by HPLC using chemiluminescence detection (CL-HPLC). MA and AP were detected in black hair, and were found in the part of the hair that grew during the period of MA use. In the same subjects, MA concentrations were lower in white hair than in black hair and AP was not detected in white hair. This difference may be related to the affinity of MA and AP for melanin.

抄録全体を表示

Carboxyhemoglobin (COHb), methemoglobin (MetHb), and a cyanide ion (CN^-) concentrations in the blood taken from 70 victims by fire and auto exhausts were simultaneously determined by our previously described colorimetries using a gas phase mini-circulation apparatus. The simultaneous determination of one sample was performed within 45 min. There existed a difference of hemoglobin derivatives and CN^- levels among the each source of carbon monoxide poisoning. In the case of low COHb concentration in blood samples taken from the victims by auto exhausts, it should be considered that the causes of death of the victims might be owing to the combination of carbon monoxide poisoning and hypoxic hypoxia. When MetHb concentration is used as an indicator for vital reactions, the causes of death should be carefully determined because MetHb concentration in the blood is varied by heating the cadaver died by fire or storing even at 4°C. Since CN^- was detected from most of the samples and the lethal level of CN^- was determined from the some of the samples, CN^- concentration in blood samples taken from the fire victims should be certainly determined. From the results, it was shown that the determination of COHb, MetHb, and CN^- concentrations was very important for investigating the causes of death of suicides and victims by fire and auto exhausts, and the simultaneous methods used in this study were available for the practice of forensic science.

抄録全体を表示

A lot of sterilized disinfectants have been used in hospitals, recently. Pharmaceutical companies producing them only assure their sterility before unsealing the containers. Therefore, we examined the microbiological quality of both commercially available sterilized and prepared disinfectants inside two hospitals in Osaka. We investigated bacterial contamination in sterile purified water under opening for two or seventeen h in one of the hospitals. The isolated bacteria from the water after opening their caps were classified into sixteen strains : twelve Gram positive coccus, two Gram positive bacilli and two Gram negative bacilli. However, no bacteria were found in four kinds of the disinfectants, 0.025% Zalkonin^[○!R], 0.025% Hyamine^[○!R] 0.05% Stericlon^[○!R] and 0.05% Hibitane^[○!R] after opening caps of containers for five or thirty min in the hospitals. These results suggested that harmful bacterial effects might not be found in several opening caps of disinfectant containers.

抄録全体を表示

In order to evaluate the safety of antimicrobial/deodorant agents, a research on totally 1113 kinds of commercially available products in 47 stores has been performed in cooperation with the public health institutes and the administrative departments of Osaka prefecture for 6 years since 1991. For the classification of these research products, a new classification on household products was made. Furthermore, the results of this research were gathered in"the data base (DB) on commercially available products research, "which is a component of"the DB system on antimicrobial/deodorant agents."The DB system includes the DB on active ingredients (AIs) and so on. As a result of this research, AIs were directly shown in the labellings of 226 out of 1113 products investigated (20.3%). And then, AIs could be estimated from the names of processing in the labellings of 210 out of 1113 products (18.9%). Namely, consumers may be informed of AIs in only 39.2% of processed products. In other words, the results of our research revealed that AIs of antimicrobial/deodorant agents in commercially available products were inadequately informed of package labellings. Therefore, consumers cannot obtain enough information on antimicrobial/deodorant agents in commercially available products. Moreover, the results of this research have been utilized in the beginning of other investigations such as analytical investigation and so on, and have been used for the maintenance of the safety management of household products.

抄録全体を表示