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“The Power of Analytical Communities”: How Expertise Among AOAC Communities Led to Choice of Method for Determination of Pyrrolizidine Alkaloid Contamination in Afghan Wheat  
Rapid response and networking between members of different AOAC communities and world experts on toxins has led to the selection of a preferred method of detecting contamination in wheat in Afghanistan.
A common weed known as Charmac, a species of Heliotrope, multiplies during drought and periodically invades the wheat fields in Afghanistan. Consumption of the weed-infested wheat in large quantities can result in fatal liver disease, due to abundant pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs). Recently, a USAID food safety expert working in Afghanistan contacted an expert in seafood toxins and expressed a desperate need to find a method to detect PAs, especially in harsh field conditions. An e-mail was sent to James Hungerford, chair of AOAC’s Marine and Freshwater Toxins Task Force. Hungerford contacted Joseph Betz, of the Dietary Supplements community, because of their mutual interest in natural toxins. Betz had contacts with PA experts. A request for help was sent out to colleagues to find a rapid test for the alkaloids. Experts from around the world offered advice and, within 24 hours, a thin-layer chromatographic (TLC) method was selected. The TLC method is now being successfully used to test wheat samples at a laboratory in Albany, California, USA. According to Hungerford, this story illustrates “the power AOAC analytical communities.” Full coverage of how members of AOAC communities and other experts worked together to find a method appears in the May/June issue of Inside Laboratory Management.
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