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Many methods for determining pesticide residues in food have been reported. Although natural medicines should be confirmed to be as safe as food, few methods for determining pesticide residues in natural medicines have been reported. In this study, 56 pesticides were detected in natural medicines with a simple, rapid sample preparation method. This study indicates that the proposed method is useful for analyzing pesticides in natural medicines.

In Japan, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection generally has occurred during fall and winter. However, a possible change in the seasonal trend of RSV infection was observed recently. The present study was done to determine whether the epidemic season of RSV infection in Japan has indeed changed significantly. We used expectation-based Poisson scan statistics to detect periods with high weekly reported RSV cases (epidemic cluster), and the epidemic clusters were detected between September and December in the 2012-2016 seasons while those were detected between July and October in the 2017-2019 seasons. Non-linear and linear ordinary least squares regression models were built to evaluate whether there is a difference in year trend in the epidemic seasonality, and the epidemic season was shifted to earlier in the year in 2017-2019 compared to that in 2012-2016. Although the reason for the shift is unclear, this information may help in clinical practice and public health.

Recently, thienyl derivatives of cathinones have appeared on the market as new psychoactive substances (NPS). In this study, identification and characterization of 2-(pyrrolidin-1-yl)-1-(thiophen-2-yl)pentan-1-one (a-PVT), 2-(pyrrolidin-1-yl)-1-(thiophen-2-yl)butan-1-one (a-PBT), and their bromothienyl analogs disclosed in illicit products are described. In our analysis, some analogous compounds of a-PVT, which had a bromine substitution on the thiophene ring, were identified in the samples containing a-PVT; 1-(4-bromothiophen-2-yl)-2-(pyrrolidin-1-yl)pentan-1-one, 1-(5-bromothiophen-2-yl)-2-(pyrrolidin-1-yl)pentan-1-one, and 1-(4,5-dibromothiophen-2-yl)-2-(pyrrolidin-1-yl)pentan-1-one by comparing the analytical data with synthetic reference standards. We also observed 1-(4-bromothiophen-2-yl)-2-(pyrrolidin-1-yl)butan-1-one and 1-(5-bromothiophen-2-yl)-2-(pyrrolidin-1-yl)butan-1-one from a powder product, in which a-PBT was detected. The brominated a-PVTs were also found when overbrominated 1-(thiophen-2-yl)pentan-1-one reacted with pyrrolidine, and they are suspected to be the by-products of a-PVT synthesis. In Japan, cathinone derivatives with a phenyl group as the aromatic ring have been widely controlled by generic scheduling. To escape from such a regulation, analogs with different aromatic groups such as a-PVT and a-PBT appeared on the illicit market of psychoactive compounds. To our knowledge, this is the first report describing identification of a-PBT, and bromothienyl analogs of both a-PVT and a-PBT in illicit drug products. The synthetic method and analytical data shown in this study will be useful for identification of the thienyl derivatives of cathinone analogs.

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