Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 9
Claim 1
Independent Claim
182 words
The method of analyzing peanuts and the like for the presence of aflatoxins, comprising the steps of (a) grinding a quantity of said nuts into a paste, (b) mixing said paste with a solution of methanol and water to form a slurry therefrom, (c) filtering said slurry to extract a filtrate therefrom in the form of an aqueous solution, (d) mixing said aqueous solution with a quantity of dichloromethane, (e) extracting said dichloromethane from said aqueous solution to obtain an extract therefrom, (f) evaporating the dichloromethane from said extract to obtain a first residue therefrom (g) mixing said first residue with a quantity of trifluoracetic acid to form a derivative of said aflatoxins, (h) evaporating said trifluoracetic acid to obtain a second residue therefrom, (i) mixing said second residue with a solution of tetrahydrofuran and CH 3 COOH to obtain a mobile phase therefrom, (j) filtering said mobile phase through a minicolumn, (k) injecting said mobile phase into a high pressure liquid chromatograph to separate the aflatoxin components in said mobile phase, and, (l) measuring the concentrations of each of said components.
Claim 2
Independent Claim
182 words
The method of analyzing peanuts and the like for the presence of aflatoxins, comprising the steps of (a) grinding a quantity of said nuts into a paste, (b) mixing said paste with a solution of methanol and water to form a slurry therefrom, (c) filtering said slurry to extract a filtrate therefrom in the form of an aqueous solution, (d) mixing said aqueous solution with a quantity of dichloromethane, (e) extracting said dichloromethane from said aqueous solution to obtain an extract therefrom, (f) evaporating the dichloromethane from said extract to obtain a first residue therefrom (g) mixing said first residue with a quantity of trifluoracetic acid to form a derivative of said aflatoxins, (h) evaporating said trifluoracetic acid to obtain a second residue therefrom, (i) mixing said second residue with a solution of tetrahydrofuran and CH 3 COOH to obtain a mobile phase therefrom, (j) filtering said mobile phase through a minicolumn, (k) injecting said mobile phase into a high pressure liquid chromatograph to separate the aflatoxin components in said mobile phase, and, (l) measuring the concentrations of each of said components.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
21 words
The method of claim 1 wherein said solution of methanol and water comprises approximately 80% methanol and 20% water by volume.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
17 words
The method of claim 1 including the step of adding a salt solution to said filtered slurry.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
12 words
The method of claim 3 wherein said salt solution is zinc acetate.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
21 words
The method of claim 1 wherein said mobile phase comprises approximately 20% tetrahydrofuran and 80% (1% CH 3 COOH) by volume.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
33 words
The method of claim 1 wherein said concentrations are measured by exposure thereof to a fluorescing light source to excite fluorescence in said components and detecting and measuring selected bands of fluorescence therefrom.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
24 words
The method of claim 1 including the step of injecting into said chromatograph aflatoxin standards in the mobile phase to obtain reference data therefrom.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
27 words
The method of claim 1 wherein said minicolumn is a glass tube having an inside diameter of approximately 4 mm I.D. and containing a filter material therein.