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View Full Version : Sending an item in to (a chemist?) analyze ingredients??



alxardnax
July 26th, 2011, 02:03 PM
Hello,

This may seem like a strange question but I go through phases of taking bee pollen daily and bee pollen can vary drastically by supplier, geography, local floral life etc. Some claim that bee pollen has B12 and others claim that they have other B vitamins but not B12 and so on.

Is there a way to send it in (I guess to some kind of chemist) to analyze exactely what ingredients or vitamins are in there? I have heard of people doing this with certain things but I don't even know how to look it up?

Thanks!

Cainwen
July 26th, 2011, 02:13 PM
I'd see if a local university has a biochemist as a prof (normal chemistry could do it too, I bet) and contact them to see if they wouldn't mind a side project. If you dont have a local university, you could still probably find one with a biochemist who you could deal with by post.

Anje
July 26th, 2011, 02:21 PM
I agree -- try a local university. You'll need to find someone with a GC-MS (Gas chromatograph -- Mass spectroscopy unit) probably, though someone might manage to make it work with HPLC if they can get the pollen to dissolve in something appropriate. Thankfully, standards for Vitamin B12 probably aren't hard to get, though you might need to pay for the lab to order them.

ETA: Doing a bit more reading on this... This paper (http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=5&ved=0CDsQFjAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhgxy.hunnu.edu.cn%2FUploadFile%2F 20061116102410303.pdf&rct=j&q=cyanocobalamin%20HPLC%20standard&ei=mSIvToGCHZTrgQe44ORw&usg=AFQjCNHuOOJIXAarnJMXBif_W1vIBDddgA&sig2=1bNRQe4j5htWrzvzvLUpTg&cad=rja) (Link opens PDF, at least for me) states that B12 determination is rather difficult. I'm not particularly familiar with the methods they use (biochemistry really isn't my area), but it looks like they've found a satisfactory method.

alxardnax
July 26th, 2011, 02:44 PM
Thanks! That is an excellent idea!!!