[The degradation of vicine and convicine in field bean meal by selected bacterial strains].

Vicine and convicine as natural occurring toxic compounds in Vicia faba are involved in the formation of hemolytic anemia (favism). Removal of these compounds needs high technological expense. Microbiological degradation with different strains of bacteria was tried.

[Blood pressure monitoring in aged hypertensive patients treated with sustained-release nicardipine or nifedipine].

In a double-blind parallel study, 20 elderly hypertensive subjects (mean age 85 years) were treated either by nicardipine or by nifedipine in slow-release form for 7 days. Blood pressure was measured by ambulatory, non-invasive daytime monitoring. Efficacy of both drugs was similar on the seventh day of treatment.

[Analysis of volatile nitrosamines in food of animal origin].

A method is described for the fluorescence-spectrophotometric densitometric determination of nitrosamines. For this purpose, foods of animal origin are vacuum-distilled, the distilled-over nitrosamines are extracted with methylene chloride from an acid medium and, after cleavage by hydrogen bromide, the corresponding amines are reacted with 7-chloro-4-nitrobenzo-2-oxa-1,3-diazole. The purificaton of the extract and the resolution of the corresponding fluorescent amine derivatives are effected simultaneously by two-dimensional thin-layer chromatography.