Social Determinants of Health Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Department of Clinical Toxicology, Loghman Hakim Hospital, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, South Kargar Street, Tehran, Iran.
Subst Abuse Treat Prev Policy. 2019 Dec 16;14(1):56. doi: 10.1186/s13011-019-0244-z.
Methanol is highly toxic to human beings and naturally exists in some beverages. Having access to an easy and cheap method for its determination is of great importance to increase the safety of use of these beverages. Our main aim is to evaluate methanol concentration of some alcoholic beverages in Iran black market and compare it with the European and US standards. Also, we evaluated the efficacy of a newly designed and produced chemical kit in determining the risk of methanol toxicity by drinking of such samples compared to gas chromatography method.
Methanol content of suspected alcoholic beverages referred to forensic toxicology laboratory, Guilan province, Iran was measured using gas chromatography and a recently designed kit based on modified colorimetric chromotropic acid method.
Of 1221 samples, 145 (11.9%) had no ethanol content, while in three samples (0.25%), methanol was high enough (700,000; 870,000; 920,000 mg/L) to cause severe methanol toxicity. Median [IQR] ethanol content of the suspected samples was 9% [3.7, 32.75]. Methanol was detected in 128 (10.48%) samples using gas chromatography method and 160 samples (13.1%) with designed kit with 100% sensitivity, 97.07% specificity, and 100% negative-predictive-value.
Alcoholic beverages produced in local black market in Iran are not safe at all. The application of the new method is practical, rapid, easy, and accurate to evaluate the risk of methanol toxicity in suspected alcoholic drinks.
甲醇对人体有剧毒，且天然存在于某些饮料中。获得一种简单且廉价的甲醇检测方法对于提高这些饮料的使用安全性至关重要。我们的主要目的是评估伊朗黑市上一些酒精饮料中的甲醇浓度，并将其与欧洲和美国的标准进行比较。此外，我们还评估了一种新设计和生产的化学试剂盒在评估饮用这些样品引起甲醇毒性风险方面的效果，与气相色谱法相比。
使用气相色谱法和一种新设计的试剂盒（基于改良的变色酸比色法）对来自伊朗吉兰省法医毒理学实验室的可疑酒精饮料中的甲醇含量进行了测量。
在 1221 个样本中，145 个（11.9%）没有乙醇含量，而在 3 个样本（0.25%）中甲醇含量过高（700000；870000；920000mg/L），足以引起严重的甲醇毒性。可疑样本的中位数[IQR]乙醇含量为 9%[3.7，32.75]。使用气相色谱法检测到 128 个（10.48%）样本和设计试剂盒检测到 160 个（13.1%）样本均含有甲醇，试剂盒具有 100%的灵敏度、97.07%的特异性和 100%的阴性预测值。
伊朗本地黑市生产的酒精饮料根本不安全。新方法的应用具有实用、快速、简便和准确的特点，可用于评估可疑酒精饮料中甲醇毒性的风险。
