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Bill Elkus wrote:

>...I was given a copy an article entitled "Gliadin in Pharmaceutical
>Products" by  Dr. S.S.  Schiffman, Dept of Psychology, Duke
>University, Bldg 9, Durham NC 27706 in the "Jof Pediatr Gastroenterol
>Nutr, Vol 19, No. 1, 1994, page 27-33"
>
>It tests for gliadin in 59 different frequently prescribed drugs and
>OTC medications, and most of them came up positive, including
>Tylenol, Actifed Plus, Benadryl, Excedrin and many others...

Reply from Don Kasarda:

I was sent the article in question by Michael Jones for my comments.
Although I can not say that the results are invalid, I have some
reservations about the use of a commercial antibody to gliadin that might
cross react with minor components in the drugs.  There was no mention in the
article of control experiments that I think would be important for me to
feel confidence in the results (although such experiments may have been done
and not mentioned).  For example, were control experiments to check for
cross-reaction of the antibody preparation with corn starch and other
gluten-free components of drugs carried out?  Because the antibody
preparation is crude, it will likely contain antibdodies to various other
substances in addition to gliadins (perhaps even dietary components of what
was fed to the animal used to make the antibodies), although these other
antibodies would likely be present in much smaller amounts. Additionally, I
would guess that the major drug companies are now aware of the potential
problems with gluten in their products and I find it surprising that so many
preparations showed up positive in this work.   Until my questions are
satisfied, I reserve judgement on this work.  Elaine Hartsook, GIG, Seattle,
has commented on this paper in one of her recent newsletters.  I don't have
time right now to pursue the matter with the authors of the paper to see
what controls were done.  Perhaps someone else does.