A. Logrieco et al., NATURAL OCCURRENCE OF BEAUVERICIN IN PREHARVEST FUSARIUM-SUBGLUTINANSINFECTED CORN EARS IN POLAND, Journal of agricultural and food chemistry, 41(11), 1993, pp. 2149-2152
Fourteen samples of preharvest infected corn ears, collected in 1990-1
991 from different Polish cornfields, were found to be highly infected
by Fusarium subglutinans. This species was recently shown to produce
in culture beauvericin (BEA), a toxin mostly known for its insecticida
l properties. Chemical analysis by high-performance liquid chromatogra
phy and high-performance thin-layer chromatography revealed the occurr
ence in the naturally infected corn samples of BEA (up to 60 mg/kg). W
hen cultured on autoclaved corn kernels for 4 weeks at 25-degrees-C 8
of the 10 assayed strains of F. subglutinans produced BEA (up to 200 m
g/kg), whereas 9 strains also produced moniliformin (up to 500 mg/kg).
Cultural extracts containing the highest amounts of BEA proved to be
toxic in Artemia salina bioassay. The natural occurrence of BEA in cor
n is reported here for the first time.