Caffeine, Dextrometrophan, And Xanax. What Else Can Donated Blood Contain?

Caffeine, dextrometrophan, and Xanax. What else can donated blood contain?

Donated blood may not be as pure as many might expect. According to a small study, it may contain a number of medicinal substances that could potentially be dangerous. Scientists found caffeine in every sample they studied.

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Donated blood may not be as pure as many might expect. According to a study published in the Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Analysis, it may contain a number of medicinal substances. Scientists found caffeine in every sample they studied.

Scientists have made such discoveries trying to develop an effective method for studying how various herbal bioactive supplements interact with prescription drugs in the body, what side effects they threaten.

The authors studied the chemical composition of blood samples using mass spectrometry. As a result, they received interesting data on how people's lifestyle affects the composition of the blood they donate.

According to research, caffeine can be found in almost any blood sample. Is this a significant problem?

“In terms of pollution, caffeine is not a big problem for patients, but rather provides information about modern society. But other drugs we find in the blood can be a problem, including for researchers like us, because getting a clean blood sample is difficult,”said study co-author Luying Chen, a pharmacologist at Oregon State University.

In 13 of 18 blood tests, scientists found the tranquilizer alprazolam, known commercially as Xanax, in 9 - traces of the over-the-counter cough medicine dextrometrophan. It is known that both substances are used by toxic addicts.

The presence of such "additives" can cause complications in blood transfusion and complications in medical research, Chen said.

The scientists write that they are satisfied with the methods they have presented for determining drugs in blood samples. In their opinion, this should help understand how herbal supplements affect other drugs people are taking.

The number of cut samples investigated in this work was not large, so the conclusions cannot be considered generalizing. Thus, caffeine is unlikely to be found in every bottle of donated blood. But this work raises an important question for future research: what is actually in the blood that people donate for both medical and research purposes?

“Another thing to think about is that we only found drugs in the blood that were specifically looking for for our study. How many other substances we didn’t find were those blood samples in?”Asks study co-author Richard B.van Breemen of the Linus Pauling Institute.