diff --git a/src/nmreval/io/asciireader.py b/src/nmreval/io/asciireader.py
index afed5d8..6f48fec 100644
--- a/src/nmreval/io/asciireader.py
+++ b/src/nmreval/io/asciireader.py
@@ -46,7 +46,7 @@ class AsciiReader:
         num_lines += len(self.header)
         with self.fname.open('r') as f:
             for i, line in enumerate(islice(f, len(self.header)+len(self.lines), num_lines)):
-                line = line.rstrip('\n\t\r, ')
+                line = line.strip('\n\t\r, ')
                 line = re.sub(r'[\t ;,] *', ';', line)
                 line = line.split(';')