DETECTION OF POLAR AND MACROCYCLIC TRICHOTHECENE MYCOTOXINS FROM INDOOR ENVIRONMENTS

A method is described for the qualitative and semi-quantitative simult aneous determination of both non-macrocyclic and macrocyclic trichothe cene biotoxins from samples derived from indoor environments. The meth od includes extraction, sample pre-treatment and reversed-phase HPLC s eparation followed by tandem mass spectrometric identification and qua ntification using electrospray ionization on a quadrupole ion trap mas s analyser. Aqueous methanol was used in the initial extraction and so lvent partitioning and solid-phase extraction in the purification of s amples. The RPLC separation was run on-line with electrospray ionizati on MS-MS detection. The detection limits and recoveries of the procedu re varied from 1 to 1000 pg and from 31 to 92%, respectively. As the m ethod includes few and not very labour intensive sample treatment step s, it should allow for a high throughput of;samples with good prospect s of automation.