Honey samples were analyzed by stable carbon isotopic ratio analysis by mass spectrometry (SCIRA-MS) and site-specific natural isotopic fractionation measured by nuclear magnetic resonance (SNIF-NMR) to first determine their potentials for characterizing the substance and then to combat adulteration. Honey samples from several geographic and botanical origins were analyzed. The δ13C parameter was not significant for characterizing an origin, while the (D/H)I ratio could be used to differentiate certain single-flower varieties. Application of the official control method of adding a C4 syrup (AOAC official method 998.12) to our authentic samples revealed anomalies resulting from SCIRA indices that were more negative than −1‰ (permil). A filtration step was added to the experimental procedure and provided results that were compliant with the natural origin of our honey samples. In addition, spiking with a C4 syrup could be detected starting at 9–10%. The use of SNIF-NMR is limited by the detection of a syrup spike starting only at 20%, which is far from satisfying.

The control of the floral quality of honey has become a priority issue as a result of the number of abuses observed and the relative ease of getting around existing control methods. We conducted chromatographic analyses of honey sugars to determine new criteria for authenticating an origin. The work involved creating databases by analysing a large number of authentic honeys from seven monofloral varieties, followed by statistical processing of the results by a principal components analysis. Differences in composition could thus be demonstrated, such as the presence of trisaccharides in fir honey, that provide an additional tool for authenticating unknow commercial honeys.

Amino acid analysis of honey by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was used first to discriminate different botanical origins and then to combat adulteration. Pure honeys of seven selected floral varieties were examined. A principal component analysis (PCA) was carried out on the results after selection of the most discriminating parameters. Lavender honeys were thus perfectly characterized, but complete satisfaction was not obtained with the six other varieties. This method (analysis by HPLC and statistical processing by PCA) enabled us to detect the addition of sugar syrup to rape and fir honeys.

Gas chromatography and liquid chromatography have been used simultaneously to analyze sugars in honey. After statistical processing by principal components analysis, additions of exogenous sugars could be detected by the appropriate fingerprints of adulteration. Application to acacia, chestnut and lavender honeys enabled the detection of fraud resulting from 5 to 10% addition of sugar syrups. This method may be considered as a replacement of isotopic analysis, that has some limitations.

L'utilisation de l'Electrophorese Capillaire de Zone (ECZ) nous a permis de doser rapidement l'acide gluconique (l'acide organique majoritaire des miels) et de facon simple et repetable, sans longue preparation d'echantillon, car ce parametre peut etre exploite comme marqueur d'une appellation florale. En effet, l'analyse d'un grand nombre d'echantillons nous a permis de distinguer les miels de châtaignier, caracterises par une forte teneur en acide gluconique (comprise entre 7,2 et 12,3 g.kg-1) et les miels d'acacia et de colza, marques par de faibles teneurs (comprises entre 1,5 et 5,6 g.kg-1). La teneur en acide gluconique peut donc etre utilisee pour confirmer une appellation florale et geographique, en complement d'autres analyses physico-chimiques.

This study, which continues the 1987 investigation, has attempted to correlate the tendency of market honeys to crystallize with technological production data that can be measured but not always controlled. Twenty-five typical honeys from Western Europe were liquified, heated at 78-degrees-C for pasteurization and placed in 100 glass tubes which were kept at 5, 10, 15 and 20-degrees-C. Each tube was observed at 8 different times for 17 months, and was graded from 0 (none) to 9 (hard crystallized) (800 gradings in all). The statistics cover five tables, with an analysis of variance of the grade together with the storage temperature and duration (table II), and multiple stepwise linear regressions of the grade on the initial composition and viscosity of liquid honey (table III), as it stands just before pasteurization.The development of graining is shown in figures 3 and 4. There is no significant difference between storage temperatures of 10, 15 or 20-degrees-C. Storage at 5-degrees-C begins with a so-called ''latent'' time without any crystallization, but then graining will develop at the same constant rate as the other temperatures. These results are discussed in terms of crystallization technology; an important but not obvious role of the initial viscosity is presumed.At the beginning of storage, the grade cannot be predicted from the controlled factors. In case of longer storage times, on the contrary, the grade may be predicted from the initial composition and viscosity of the honey. As an example, a regression formula is given for 15 months storage at 15-degrees-C, wherein the calculated grades are in rather good agreement with the observed true grades (fig 5). The grade variability is also rather well explained - about 80% - when considering the majority of honeys, but a few varieties present atypical behaviour: whatever the storage temperature and time, rape honeys always crystaliized very fast, whereas Robinia honeys never crystallized. This is why, when considering the entire batch of honeys, only 50% of the variability is explained. Improvement of this score would undoubtedly require a better knowledge of the factors which play a part in graining tendency, especially more thorough compositional analyses of a wide variety of honeys.

The natural cytotoxic activity in vivo can be evaluated by measuring in vivo tumor cell destruction after injecting mice with 125IUdR-labeled tumor cells, measuring their total body radioactivity and calculating the % radioactivity lost. We have studied the in vivo destruction of 125IUdR-labeled L1210 leukemic cells by B10.D2 mice previously immunized 4 times with heavily irradiated L1210 leukemic cells. Mathematical analysis of our results indicates that the radiolabel loss on day 1 is similar in normal and immunized animals, but that it stays greater over the following days in immunized animals, indicating that the difference between the two groups is not the extent of the initial cell destruction but the durability of the response. There is a good correlation between the eventual survival, the % of 125IUdR lost and the number of tumor cells present in the peritoneal cavity three hours after their injection. Such a methodology provides a very early prediction of the survival of each mouse, thus identifying animals with a poor prognosis.

La présente étude fait suite à celle publiée en 1979 ; son objet étant de vérifier statistiquement s'il y a intérêt à introduire l'a w dans l'étude de la cristallisation des miels.Elle confirme la possibilité de calculer l'a w à 0,01 près par défaut à partir de la composition.Mais, pour 55 miels pasteurisés liquides du commerce, l'a w et la teneur en eau ont une faible variabilité.Par suite, l'introduction de l'a w , à côté du rapport D/W (Glucose/Eau), comme variable explicative de la note de cristallisation apporte peu : La note est expliquée à 45 % par le seul rapport D/W, et à 50 % seulement par l'ensemble des variables D/W, a w , et âge.Ces résultats sont confirmés lorsqu'on étend l'étude aux 471 miels plus hétérogènes étudiés par WH!TE et al. (1962).Il apparaît donc que l'utilisation d'un indice de la forme I n = D/W à la place de D/W n'est _ _(1 -aw)" justifiée que dans certains cas particuliers ; en général on peut se contenter de D/W mais sans pouvoir en déduire la tendance à cristalliser.D'autre part la validité de la note en tant que mesure de la tendance à cristalliser est discutée.Les facteurs présumés responsables de l'erreur expérimentale de 50 % sont passés en revue.Parmi ceux-ci, la viscosité et la température de conservation semblent très importants : leur contrôle systématique serait sans doute justifié, car il semble qu'on puisse en espérer une nette amélioration du diagnostic de la tendance à cristalliser.

When injected i.p. and in large numbers (10(7)) into syngeneic mice, 125IUdR-labelled L1210 cells are rapidly destroyed in a small proportion of animals, while in the other animals the lysis is low. This bimodal distribution is clearly visible 24 h after cell injection. The intense lysis occurs in fewer animals when macrophage-derived lysosomal enzymes are inhibited by trypan blue and if the complement is depleted by high doses of cobra venom factor (CVF). The intense destruction occurs in more animals after adjuvant treatment, if the mice are latently contaminated, after a moderate production of C3b by low doses of CVF, or after the injection of a tumour-cell dialysate. The destruction seems to be the result of positive feedback reaction which involves at least macrophages and complement activation.

Forty-three patients with inoperable or recurring malignant gliomas, and 30 patients with multiple recurring brain metastases were treated with a combination of Adriamycin (45 mg/m2) and 4-dimethyl-epipodophyllotoxin D-thenylidene (VM 26) (60 mg/m2 for 2 days) with 1-(2-chloroethyl)-3-cyclohexyl-1-nitrosourea (CCNU) (60 mg/m2 for 2 days). These cycles of treatment were repeated as soon as the hematologic restoration was complete. The treatment was well tolerated and the clinical condition of 31 of 43 glioblastoma patients improved during the 2 months after the beginning of the treatment. Six of eight patients with breast cancer metastases, one of 13 with bronchial cancer matastases, and three of nine with other types of cancer metastases also benefitted from the treatment. Examination of the results obtained revealed the following characteristics: 1) This combination had a low degree of efficiency in the treatment of metastases to brain, except for breast cancer metastases; 2) there was no complete correlation between the clinical results observed and the cinegammagraphic developments; 3) the results obtained were similar, independent of the initial localization; and a 6-month median survival period was established, with 10 patients now in a state of apparently complete remission, 180 to 506 days after beginning of the treatment.

In (DBA/2×C57Bl/6) F1 mice the i.v. injection of 1 mg of living BCG does not increase the total number of CFU/s per femur, but a marked increase in the percentage of CFU/s in S phase is noted as early as the 8th hr. BCG injected i.v. also increases the absolute number of colony-forming units in agar per femur. The effect of BCG appears quite different from the known effect of bacterial endotoxin, and in particular it does not induce a significant increase in the level of CSF. The administration of BCG 24 hrs after treatment with a single dose of 200 mg/kg of cyclophosphamide significantly reduces the time of hematologic restoration, but the same dose of BCG given after a lethal dose of total body irradiation does not increase survival time in mice. These different effects of BCG seem to be related to the role of BCG in stimulating the multiplication maturation pool of the bone marrow without producing any increase in the reserve pool.