Sorting Out The Andro Question

Sorting Out The Andro Question
by Robert S. Green

Much has been written about the Androstenedione/diol family of products and a greatdebate continues on their safety and efficacy. What is equally troubling for our industryis that despite these products' popularity, there is complete confusion on theidentification and quantification of the individual products that compose this group. Itis time to resolve this situation:

At last count, there were nine compounds composing this group, as follows:

Each of the above is a different compound, and a small change in molecular compositioncan have a dramatic effect.

There exists much confusion over which product is which. Some raw materialmanufacturers are not sure which compound is ordered and which they are producing. Someraw material suppliers, encapsulators and finished product sellers are not sure which theywant and which they get.

First and foremost, each player needs to know which product is desired and then specifyit by its full name. Looking at the above list, if you specify only "19-Nor,"you have a one-in-four chance of getting what you want.

Even after determining which product you want, that isn't the end. Identifying which iswhich, and determining the quality of any given sample, can be a crapshoot. This is onearea where analyses at different analytical labs will routinely contradict each other.Labs will disagree on the identity and quality of most of the above compounds. There is asimple explanation for this. There are no commercially available analytical standards forthese products.

To understand this situation, a quick analytical lesson is in order. It would be niceto put any compound in a machine that would identify and quantify it, but it doesn't workthis way. In actuality, identification and quantification are generally done by comparisonto known entities. For example, to confirm the identity and quality of a chrysin sample, alab would compare a known fully-characterized sample of chrysin (known as a"standard"), run the standard and the sample to be tested together in an HPLCand compare the results. For most known compounds in commerce there are generally acceptedstandards available to do this. If several qualified analytical labs test a sample againsta correct standard the results should be comparable, even if they employ differentanalytical methods. When there are no standards available, the system breaks down. Itdeteriorates to the point where labs are comparing products to be tested against assumedbut incorrect "standards" or in some cases against no standards at all, whichinvalidates the results.

There are standards available for the first three products in the above list and, as aresult, there is little analytical confusion concerning them. There are no commerciallyavailable standards for the remaining six products, but there is material simply assumedto be as labeled without adequate documentation to verify its authenticity, and this iswhere chaos reigns.

There are several reasons why no standards exist for the six products. To begin with,these products have come out of nowhere to become commercial hits and the chemicalindustry has not yet caught up. Also, these products are steeped in controversy, so manytechnicians shy away from them. And simply, in many technical circles, the sportsnutrition industry "gets no respect." The fact is these products are legally incommerce and both the industry and the consumers need to be served.

For an analytical lab to adequately test the remaining six products, it must havedeveloped its own standards. In order for a "standard" to qualify as such, itshould have been obtained from a reliable source and subjected to a multitude ofcharacterization tests, each one focusing on a different property of the compound. Eachtest result must match that reported in the literature or independently verifiable fromfirst principles of structural chemistry.

So the moral of the story is twofold. First, be sure you know which product you want.Second, be sure your analytical lab has a standard for the product you want tested. Andmake sure the lab is using a true standard with supporting data, and not an "assumedstandard." Ask your lab where it obtained the standard and how do they know it is thecompound it is supposed to be. If they can't or won't answer both questions, then tryanother lab. Only with this information can you be sure you are getting your analyticalmoney's worth.

Robert S. Green is the president of Integrated Biomolecule Corp., which conductsresearch, development and testing of nutritional supplements. He can be reached at (520)799-7566.