LabMax Colorimetric Analyses

A competing bodybuilder I know for many years mailed me that he was using oxandrolone in his preparation. He heard that someone had analysed the brand he used and that it contained stanozolol instead of oxandrolone.

What happened was that he ran into thread about LabMax analyses. LabMax is all over the bodybuilding forums to promote these “analyses.” What bothers me is that they present the coloring of the reagents as real and reliable.

In 2014 LabMax started under the alias “Mercury” threads about his test kits on our website JuicedMuscle. Before that he , apparently, posted on steroidology.

One of our analytical schooled members from China Dr Wong confronted him: “I don't know what to say exactly, you are all over the boards with your unskilled and non-technical chemistry language calling everybody "retard" "idiot" and "scammer". Why don't you answer the thread on steroidology where people showed proof that the photos you posted about so called "underdosed" Asia Pharma Deca have the identically same background as the photos found on the labmax website. Is quite a coincidence right?”

“I made a print screen for members here to understand who is labmax and mercury and what are their practices. Its 100% clear that mercury is same as labmax now the question remains: are all his threads and posts on forums regarding "fake" or "underdosed" gear fake and just a publicity stunt? You guys do see the same squares on the paper right? It’s quite coincidence!”

“mercury: next time do your marketing campaign better and with more brain and effort. Not everybody is stupid and most of us can see straight through you and clearly notice your fake lab tests. Why don't you promote your quick-tests in an ethical manner without having to mislead people and ranting all day long at everybody that are bringing some doubt and wanting to discuss this colorimetric tests more in depth? You are doing a huge disservice to all the boards and members you are on because you're actually forging reality for your financial purposes. You should be ashamed instead you go calling everybody and idiot and a scammer. You are the only scammer here, let’s stop all drama and move along. “

Our Own Experiments

On my old forum Body of Science, in 2008, I made a thread of toying with sulfuric acid and later with the Marquis reagent (a mixture of formaldehyde and concentrated sulfuric acid).

The picture left shows how a real Thai pentangle d-bol reacts and the counterfeit doesn’t. The marquis reagent came from a kit called the EZ-test for drug testing. This made William think. He wanted to explore the possibility to develop and sell kits as indicators for anabolic steroids.

In those days it was still possible to analyse in SRCS for 80 USD. It was therefore meant as first indication and if you wanted to be sure you could perform an analysis at SRCS or NorthEast etc. But Bill saw a market because it was cheap and quick.

We had a Russian member at Body of Science (BIO) that was paid by us to do research together with his professor in a Russian university laboratory. While I researched reagents in the Netherlands with help of a very knowledgeable analyst. We stopped due to all false positives.

 Than Bio started to research on tests on blotting paper. He quitted because more reliable tests required volatile compounds like acids. And those cannot be sold to the general public. And again many false positives. HPLC/MS/MS is very reliable, but even more accurate with database or better a few databases. With only HPLC you can determine the active ingredient and doses, when you run it with a reference standard, but if a compound also contains other compounds not meant to be in the compound tested, it is very hard to find out what it is and if it is a toxin, residue etc.

Dr. Wong Again:

“LabMax tests are unreliable, if anyone understand its working principle can easily adjust their fake gear to give false positive. If you want substance identification a mass spectrometric analysis is less than 50$ and you get an exact clear idea of what inside a vial (molecular weights, AUC, impurities). You sell this product and you keep promoting it on boards. Its fine, you need to eat also so I respect that. But don't act like you really know what you're talking about. We're in 2014. HPLC is here since 1950. You're promoting quick-tests in 2014, that's pathetic and shows you're limited access to real testing capabilities. Buy a MS/HPLC and sell analytical services, don't be pathetic and fool people into buying a unreliable quick-test.”

“I've studied colorimetry for my Ph.D and being involved in analytical sciences since 1987. I'm not sure if you were born that year but by then we knew that colorimetric analysis is very limited and the operator has no reliable guide to turn the analysis into a reliable experiment. I admit, I still use Titration in my lab applications but rarely, it’s the reverse of colometric analysis but I'm sure you already knew that, you studied chemistry in high-school right?”

“By the way, this is juicedmuscle not meso or other forum where people have flunked chemistry or even school as a whole, don't insult our intelligence with your pseudo-science practices and primitive so called analysis. Your method is unreliable and your marketing practices are highly suspicious, the fact that you appear now and then on board claiming some gear is fake, you being also the promoter of this method of analysis, makes me easily draw the conclusion you are heavily BIASED. I wouldn't go that far to call you a liar and say you're "tests" are fabricated only to discredit and stir up debate in order to up your reagent business.”

“To conclude in an educational atmosphere, none of the worlds Pharmacopoeias accept colorimetric analysis even as an identification method. USP, BP, Ph.Eur, JP or even WHO standards, none use colorimetric analysis. Wonder why? Because its limited and unreliable. Spectrometer is the minimum if you want to identify a substance (quickly but limited as well). HPLC is a MUST if you want do any type of quality assessment over a substance. EIA or ELISA tests are quick-tests that are used mostly in the food industry where you must test thousands of samples in few minutes or hours (chromogen/Substrate based).”

False Positives

Those type of test (drug and steroids) are used by LE, customs for preliminary identification. So, you mention customs and LE preliminary identification. I'm sure you are aware of the high number of false positive quick-test results that end up in failed investigations and public humiliation of LE right? You know that amphetamine quick-tests give a positive also for Ibuprofen (15687-27-1) and Ranitidine (66357-35-5)? Pretty accurate right?

Please mercury, read about EIA and ELISA, fluorometric and luminometric and its limitations and use, their only purpose is in critical conditions where no accurate machinery can be used (on the street, on a customs check point, in an airport where you must screen 5000 parcels a day, at a food safety control point). Arguing that colorimetric and enzymatic tests are reliable and accurate just because the cops use them all the time during high-way controls it’s at least foolish. I think you can self-acknowledge that you're in an embarrassing position and cornering yourself with each post and it all starts from the fact that you precisely don't know chemistry and its basic principles. Not to mention analytic chemistry is a field where study is required, no Google search or pseudo-science can replace core knowledge which you obviously lack. The question however remains: why are you so hard headed to promote this type of test? Is it because you are financially interested in it? And if you are, what about the chain of custody and viability of your analysis on this forum and on other forums where you claim Balkan Clen is fake and that Accordio goods are fake? Are this true tests or is just your marketing campaign to stir up debate and get more attention to your flimsy useless quick-tests?

During this short video, the researchers demonstrate how easy it is for police to generate a false positive during a field test for drugs.

The group tests over the counter Tylenol PM in a police test kit for cocaine — the test kit says the Tylenol is cocaine. The group also tests the most popular chocolate in the world, Hershey’s chocolate, for marijuana, it also tests positive.

Perhaps the most disturbing test was when the group put absolutely nothing (air) into the field test kit, and they received a positive result.

The director of a lab recognized by the International Association of Chiefs of Police for forensic science excellence has called field drug testing kits “totally useless” due to the possibility of false positives. In laboratory experiments, at least two brands of field testing kits have been shown to produce false positives in tests of Mucinex, chocolate, aspirin, chocolate, and oregano.

In spite of these recommendations and multiple examples of innocent people being incarcerated for their error, police departments across the country continue to employ the use of these “totally useless” kits.

In October, college student John Harrington was thrown in prison after police, with one of these field drug test kits, tested sugar, and came up with a false positive for cocaine.

“Really, I’m really in jail right now for powdered sugar, ” John Harrington thought after it happened.

We’ve also seen the case in which police mistook Jolly Ranchers for meth and jailed an innocent man. Love Olatunijojo, 25, and an unidentified friend purchased Jolly Ranchers at the It’Sugar candy emporium in Coney Island in June of 2013. Several blocks away, cops stopped and searched the friends and mistook the candies for crystal meth. Olatunijojo was then thrown in jail.

In August, we reported on the story of a man who was held in prison for over four months because police falsely identified salt as crystal meth.

And the list goes on…

The implications associated with wrongfully accusing and then claiming to have evidence of an individual in possession of an illegal substance are formidable — to say the least. Most people are simply unaware of the fact that police test kits are a crapshoot.

EZ Kit

May 2016. Newsbeat decided to put them to the test at a Home Office approved lab. The EZ test kits are simple to use. You simply snap open the small test tube and put in a small sample of the pill or powder. Give it a shake and the solution inside should change colour to indicate what the main component of the drug is.

We say "should" because we tried out the ketamine and ecstasy packs but only one of them seemed to work. Instead of turning red to indicate the main substance was ketamine, the solution went green, suggesting it was amphetamine.

"This is wrong," drug analyst Anca Frinculescu tells us. "We know this is ketamine, we are 100% sure. The kit is giving us a false reading." Next, she adds a small sample of ecstasy to the other test tube.

This time, it's more straightforward. The solution immediately turns black, confirming what we already know. The main component is ecstasy. But as well as having the potential for false readings, Anca tells us users shouldn't read too much into the test results.

"All this tells you is that this substance is mainly ecstasy. It could be 50% ecstasy, it could be 99% - we don't know. "It doesn't tell us if there's anything else in there too that's even more harmful, something like PMA. It also doesn't tell us the strength of the drug."

Dancesafe Website: Mecke reagent can only determine the PRESENCE, not QUANTITY or PURITY, of a particular substance. Dark color reactions will tend to override reactions to other substances also in the pill.

I’m so sorry but Dr Wong kicked Mercury aka Accordio aka LabMax ass so brilliantly, I just have to post this:

“All the bro-science and pseudo-science will hit you back in the face sooner or later, mainly because it’s not modern science its some quick way for some quick-tests dealers to make a fast buck fooling you into buying quick tests. Dismissing proper tests and claiming quick florescent tests are infallible is just making a disservice to the whole community misleading people into believing whatever results these tests give. All this for some "smart guys" make a quick buck of selling cheap enzyme assays. By the way, we can manufacture this type of tests 20% of the price are sold right now... great business opportunity right? Pass... we'll let other profit off naive people. What you don't understand is that LE uses this tests in time critical and field conditions (at a customs check point, in the airport transit zone, on the highway) where they can't possibly do a proper test. Also very important to know is that they don't care about false positives since that only leads to further investigation. The false negative percentage is much lower than false positive so from law enforcement point of view this tests are sufficient.”

“mercury: next time do your marketing campaign better and with more brain and effort. Not everybody is stupid and most of us can see straight through you and clearly notice your fake lab tests. Why don't you promote your quick-tests in an ethical manner without having to mislead people and ranting all day long at everybody that are bringing some doubt and wanting to discuss this colorimetric tests more in depth? You are doing a huge disservice to all the boards and members you are on because you're actually forging reality for your financial purposes. You should be ashamed instead you go calling everybody and idiot and a scammer. You are the only scammer here, let’s stop all drama and move along.”