FAQ

We deliver worldwide. In some countries we cooperate with distribution partners. A list of our distribution partners in your country can be found here. phyproof® Reference Substances are also available globally through Sigma-Aldrich or related companies. Please visit https://www.sigma-aldrich.com and select your country. To find our products you can search for „PhytoLab“, „phyproof“ or our product number with the prefix „PHL“ (e.g. our product # 89270 can be found as PHL89270 on sigma-aldrich.com).

The shipping costs (including packaging costs) are:

• Zone 1: Germany € 16.00
• Zone 2: European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland, UK € 26.00
• Zone 3: Rest of the world € 45.00

Prepaid shipping costs include insured door-to-door delivery by a PhytoLab-selected courier service (Incoterms 2020: DAP). More details can be found here.

Payment is due net within 14 days (national orders) or 30 days (international orders). PhytoLab reserves the right to request payment in advance if deemed necessary. We will inform you about this in our order confirmation at the latest.

Please arrange payments only after you have received an invoice or pro forma invoice with exact payment instructions from us.

Yes, but please note that payment by credit card or PayPal is unfortunately not possible directly in the webshop. After receipt of your order we will send you an e-mail with all necessary information about PayPal or credit card payment.

Please enter your complete billing and delivery address incl. contact person and telephone number. For customers within the EU, we also require the VAT identification number for intra-Community, VAT-free delivery. Please note that the billing address must match the registered address of your VAT identification number. After receipt of your order we require 1-2 days for the initial customer set-up in our systems - we ask for your understanding for this delay. Should we require further information from you, our phyproof® reference substance team will contact you.

From customers within the European Union we need the sales tax identification number in order to be able to carry out an intra-community, sales tax-free delivery according to §4 No. 1b UStG. If no VAT is provided the applicable value added tax will be added to the invoice.

We offer quantity discounts from 50 mg according to the following discount scale:

• from 50 mg: 10 %
• from 250 mg: 15 %
• from 500 mg: 20 %
• from 1000 mg: 25 %

All discounts are calculated with reference to the individual unit size and are only applicable if the substance has not already been pre-portioned. You will find the relevant information on the respective product detail page.

You can order our reference substances in any quantity, subject to the minimum order quantity. In addition, we fill any quantity above the defined minimum order quantity free of charge (e.g. 1 x 16 mg or 3 x 35 mg etc.). In some cases, however, our substances are only available in pre-portioned form. You will then find the corresponding information on the respective article detail page.

Usually the immediately available quantities are in the milligram to gram range, which is in general sufficient for the intended application of the reference substances in quality control. In many cases we can also supply larger quantities - please contact us directly. Please note, however, that our products are intended exclusively for research, scientific teaching and training or for analytical purposes.

Further information, such as the corresponding Certificate of Analysis and the data sheet with the method details can be downloaded directly from the Sigma-Aldrich website (https://www.sigma-aldrich.com). Please enter the batch number (to be found on the label of the vial) under „Certificate of Analysis“ on the corresponding product page.

If you have any questions regarding your order, please contact the respective Customer Service directly.

We ship refrigerated products under ambient conditions and frozen products in a polystyrene carton with frozen gel packs. No further cooling is required during transport, the stability of the substances is not impaired. Please store the substances after receipt in accordance with the recommended storage conditions.

We do not offer standardized extracts or mixtures of reference substances. With a few exceptions, our substances are sold in pure form. We offer a few articles in solution for stability reasons. Other substances are not available as a solution.

It may happen that the substance you have ordered is being subjected to a regular quality control or that the ordered quantity is not immediately available. In this case we may make partial deliveries. Subsequent deliveries for the reasons mentioned are always free of shipping costs. If you do not wish a partial delivery, please inform us immediately after receiving our order confirmation.

Please contact us at ref-substances@phytolab.de or use the comment field in our webshop when ordering. We will be happy to help you!

phyproof® reference substances are generally certified as primary reference substances according to the definition of the European Pharmacopoeia, the American Pharmacopoeia and other international institutions. Their identity is confirmed by a combination of analytical techniques such as NMR, MS and IR. In addition, our reference substances are characterized by a defined absolute content, which is based on a mass balance approach considering the chromatographic purity as well as the content of water, residual solvents and inorganic impurities.

We do not offer secondary standards.

We specify a stability period on the Certificate of Analysis based on our own stability data or structurally derived shelf lives. This period starts from the month in which the certificate was signed and applies to unopened vials stored at the recommended storage temperature. At the latest after five years we carry out an analytical retest - therefore we do not certify shelf lives of more than 60 months. We recommend using freshly prepared solutions for the analysis.

Unfortunately, we do not have stability data for our substances in solution. However, if you would like to store a stock solution for a longer period of time, we recommend checking the quality of the solution at regular intervals.

We cannot extend the shelf life of reference substances stored elsewhere. We cannot estimate the influence of your individual storage conditions on the quality. However, you can check the quality yourself by repeating the HPLC purity test or the water and residual solvent content test and recalculating the absolute content. We can also perform such retests on your behalf - please contact us for an individual offer.

The stability of the reference substances is generally not impaired even with a longer shipping time. If the import process takes a long time, we recommend that you contract the courier service to store the substances in a cold storage facility. If you have any further questions, please contact us.

phyproof® reference substances are generally certified as primary reference substances according to the definition of the European Pharmacopoeia. If the pharmacopoeia has special requirements regarding quality or the scope of analysis, please compare the requirements with the exemplary certificate of analysis of the current batch, which is available for download on the product detail page.

CRS standards are generally understood as the official reference substances of pharmacopoeias such as EP or USP. These are not available from us - we only sell our own phyproof® reference substances. Our reference substances are basically suitable for use as described in the pharmacopoeia monographs.

The determined value is below the quantification limit. In this case, the value is not included in the calculation of the absolute content.

In addition to the sale of our phyproof® reference substances, we also offer the preparation of complete primary standard documentation for marketing authorization purposes. Furthermore, we also have the possibility to carry out contract isolation of natural substances and to characterize the obtained substance as a primary standard. Please do not hesitate to contact us!

Information on solubility can be found on our certificates of analysis or data sheets. These data are based on literature data and empirical values. These solubility data are only a guide and are not to be understood as quantitative solubility data.

For information on our HPLC or GC methods, including an exemplary chromatogram, please refer to the data sheet enclosed with the substance.

The raw data for all identity checks mentioned on the certificate of analysis (e.g. IR, UV, NMR, MS, HPLC) are available on request. Simply send us a message: ref-substances@phytolab.de.

We give the exact initial weight to two decimal places. You will find this information on the inner label of the vial. Only the nominal order quantity is indicated on the outer label and the certificate of analysis.

For each order of a reference substance you will receive an individual certificate of analysis with your own certificate number. This guarantees complete traceability. We guarantee the shelf life for the indicated time period starting from the date that certificate of analysis was issued.

You can take out the substance from the vial using a spatula. Alternatively, you can quantitatively transfer the contents into a volumetric flask to prepare a stock solution of known concentration. The substance should be transferred by repeated rinsing with fresh solvent. The exact initial weight with two decimal places can be found on the inner label directly on the vial.

Please send us an e-mail with a description of your question and, if applicable, details of the method used to ref-substances@phytolab.de.

We exclusively supply commercial customers. Please note that our products are intended exclusively for use for research, scientific teaching and training purposes or for analytical purposes and may not be used for other purposes, in particular not for use in or for the production of food, animal feed, human and veterinary pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, medical products and diagnostics.

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