"Underground Anabolics" book available in early December.

The steroid samples examined during the making of UNDERGROUND ANABOLICS were done so at a DEA licensed analytical laboratory. The steroids were subject to a total of five specific lab tests, each of which can tell us something about its quality and assembly. The details of these individual lab tests are discussed below.

• Aerobic Plate Count is a measure of general sanitary quality. It quantifies the amount of bacteria found in the product, but does not identify the bacteria type. The steroid solution is placed on a general purpose medium, and the bacteria is quantified as the number of “colony forming units” per each gram of material.
• Karl Fisher Water is a test that measures the percentage of water in a solution. While not inherently of concern, high water content in an oil-based steroid can reflect unfavorable manufacturing conditions, such as the exposure of the solution or hygroscopic (water absorbing) raw materials to unfiltered air.
• Heavy Metals testing will determine the content (by weight) of toxic metals in the product such as lead, mercury, and arsenic.
• pH is a unit of measure for determining if a liquid is acidic, neutral, or basic (alkaline). An ideal pH is generally considered to be between 4 and 7. Solutions with a high or low pH may cause significant irritation in the muscle tissues at the site of injection.
• Chromatographic Purity is a gas chromatograph test designed to identify all major constituents of the product including the active drug, oily carriers, solvents, co-solvents, other antimicrobial agents, and impurities. This test essentially gives us a wide spectrum analysis of what is present in the steroid solution. It also provides a rough quantification of the active steroid concentration, although some deviation is expected from more accurate assay-based testing.