SURVEY OF NATURAL OCCURRENCE OF TRICHOTHECENE MYCOTOXINS AND ZEARALENONE IN KOREAN CEREALS HARVESTED IN 1992 USING GAS-CHROMATOGRAPHY MASS-SPECTROMETRY

For the survey of the natural occurrence of trichothecene mycotoxins, produced by species of fungi imperfecti such as Fusarium and Trichothe cium, a sensitive analytical method was developed for the simultaneous detection and quantitation of the major trichothecene mycotoxins, viz . T-2 toxin (T-2), HT-2 toxin (HT-2), nivalenol (NIV), fusarenon-X (F- X), deoxynivalenol (DON), 3-acetyl deoxynivalenol (3-Ac DON), and zear alenone (ZEN), using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry-selected ion monitoring (GC/MS-SIM) mode after trimethyl silyl derivatization. The incidences of NIV and DON in 30 barley samples were 93% and 67%, resp ectively; the average contents of NIV and DON in positive samples were 390 ng/g (range 40-2038) and 106 ng/g (range 5-361) respectively. In 15 maize samples, the incidences of NN and DON were 53% and 93% respec tively and the average contents were 168 ng/g and 145 ng/g, respective ly. These results suggest that NIV and DON were the major contaminatin g trichothecene mycotoxins in Korean barley and maize samples harveste d in 1992.