Patent ID: 7547536

Claim:
A method for detecting the presence of bacterial spores in a sample comprising: (a) adding to the sample an electrophilic alcohol and an acid anhydride of a carboxylic acid having a pKa of less than 4; (b) admixing the sample with a solvent resulting in the opening of endospore casings of any bacterial spores in the sample and the formation of an ester between the electrophilic alcohol and dipicolinic acid contained within the bacterial spores; and (c) analyzing the sample using one or more analysis methods selected from the group consisting of gas chromatography (GC)/mass spectrometry (MS), GC/GC/MS, liquid chromatography/MS, ion mobility spectrometry and ion mobility spectrometry/MS; wherein the analysis methods are capable of detecting a dipicolinic diester of dipicolinic acid and the electrophilic alcohol when bacterial spores are present in the sample.