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ISO 20418-1:2018 specifies a qualitative and quantitative testing method to determine the content of wool, cashmere, yak fibres and their blends in textiles by microscope preliminary screening, protein extraction, enzymatic digestion and specific peptides detection using a liquid chromatography-mass spectrometer equipped with electrospray ionization source (LCI-ESI-MC).

This method can be applied to relevant textile products at each process stage (i.e. from raw material to garment) with a homogeneous distribution of the components. It can be applied to different types of textile materials (e.g. staples, tops, yarns and fabrics) that contain wool, cashmere or yak fibres and their blends. The method is based on a preliminary identification of all fibres in the blend on the basis of their morphology, by light microscopy. The proteins are then extracted by a thiourea/urea/dithiothreitol (DTT) solution. An enzymatic digestion by trypsin of the protein extracted from the fibres is carried out. Analysis of the specific markers is performed by LC-MS and the percent composition is calculated.

This method is applicable to samples containing other kinds of fibres than wool, cashmere and yak, by combining its results with the results obtained using the ISO 1833 series and/or the ISO 17751 series.

ISO 20418-1:2018 does not apply if fibres of the same animal species are present (e.g. blends of cashmere and mohair); in this case, the quantitative analysis can be performed using microscopic analysis (e.g. ISO 17751 series).