Currently, the majority of diagnoses of malaria rely on a combination of the patient’s clinical presentation and the visualization of parasites on a stained blood film. Breath offers an attractive alternative to blood as the basis for simple, noninvasive diagnosis of infectious diseases. In this study, breath samples were collected from individuals during controlled malaria to determine whether specific malaria-associated volatiles could be detected in breath. We identified 9 compounds whose concentrations varied significantly over the course of malaria: carbon dioxide, isoprene, acetone, benzene, cyclohexanone, and 4 thioethers. The latter group, consisting of allyl methyl sulfide, 1-methylthio-propane, (Z)-1-methylthio-1-propene, and (E)-1-methylthio-1-propene, had not previously been associated with any disease or condition. Before the availability of antimalarial drug treatment, there was evidence of concurrent 48-hour cyclical changes in the levels of both thioethers and parasitemia. When thioether concentrations were subjected to a phase shift of 24 hours, a direct correlation between the parasitemia and volatile levels was revealed. Volatile levels declined monotonically approximately 6.5 hours after initial drug treatment, correlating with clearance of parasitemia. No thioethers were detected in in vitro cultures of Plasmodium falciparum. The metabolic origin of the thioethers is not known, but results suggest that interplay between host and parasite metabolic pathways is involved in the production of these thioethers.

and C 2 N 2 in the headspace of the chamber were stable. Each fumigant penetrated to all 21 parts of the block, but the speed and extent of penetration was different. The fumigants 22 that most rapidly achieved an even concentration throughout the block and chamber 23 were PH 3 and C 2 N 2. The maximum variation of MB, SF, C 2 N 2 and PH 3 concentration 24 between the chamber and gas port (15 cm) was 81.3, 11.8, 1.5 and 9.3% at 24 h 25 exposure and 76.8, 9.3, 0.5 and 1.1% at 48 h exposure respectively. Possible alternative 26 fumigants to MB need to penetrate timber at least as well as MB; SF, PH 3 and C 2 N 2 met 27 this criterion. 28 29

In headspace (HS) analysis, a fumigant is released from a commodity into a gas-tight container by grinding, heating, or microwaves. A new technique uses HS-solid-phase microextraction (SPME) for additional preconcentration of fumigant. HS-SPME was tested for detection of phosphine (PH3), chosen for examination because of its wide use on stored commodities. PH3 was applied to 50 g wheat in separate 250 mL sealed flasks, which were equipped either with a septum for conventional HS analysis or with one of four HS-SPME fibers [100 microm polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), 85 microm carboxen (CAR)/PDMS, 75 microm CAR/PDMS, and 65 pm PDMS/divinylbenzene (DVB)]. The wheat was heated at 45 degrees C for 20 min. In conventional HS analysis, a gaseous aliquot (80 pL) was taken from the HS and injected into the GC instrument. In the HS-SPME procedure, the fiber was removed from the HS and exposed in the heated injection port of the GC instrument. In all cases, PH3 was determined under the same chromatographic conditions with a GC pulsed flame photometric detector. In a comparison of the efficacy of the fibers, the bipolar fibers (CAR/PDMS and PDMS/DVB) contained more PH3 than the aliquot in the conventional HS analysis; larger size bipolar fibers extracted PH3 more efficiently than smaller fibers (e.g., 85 > 75 > 65 microm). The nonpolar fiber (PDMS) contained no PH3. Four fortification levels of PH3 on wheat were tested: 0.01, 0.05, 0.1, and 0.3 microg/g. The response of each bipolar fiber increased with the fortification levels, but the conventional HS analysis detected no fumigant at the lowest fortification level of 0.01 mg/g. Under the conditions of the validation study, the LOD was in the range of 0.005-0.01 ng PH3/g wheat.

The findings suggest that the ethyl formate plus methyl isothiocyanate formulation has potential as a fumigant for the control of stored-grain insect pests in various commodities.