Fast methods for screening of trichothecenes in fungal cultures using gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

The paper presents a fast method for trichothecene profiling and chemotaxon omic studies in species of Fusarium, Stachybotrys, Trichoderma and Memnonie lla. Micro scale extracted crude Fusarium extracts were derivatised using p entafluoropropionic anhydride and analysed by gas chromatography with simul taneous full scan and tandem mass spectrometric detection. It was possible to monitor for up to four compounds simultaneous, making detection of acety l T-2 toxin, T-2 toxin, HT-2 toxin, T-2 triol, T-2 tetraol, neosolaniol, is o-neosolaniol, scirpentriol, 4,15-diacetoxyscirpenol, 15-acetoxyscirpenol, 4-acetoxyscirpentriol, nivalenol, fusarenon-X, deoxynivalenol, 15-acetyl-de oxynivalenol and 3-acetyl-deoxynivalenol possible during a 23-min GC run. A slightly modified method could detect trichothecenes produced by Stachybot rys, Memnoniella and Trichoderma, by hydrolysing crude extracts prior to de rivatisation with heptafluorobuturyl imidazole. All types of derivatised ex tracts could be reanalysed using negative ion chemical ionisation (NICI) GC -MS for molecular mass determination and verification purposes. A retention time index could be used for correction in retention time drifts between s equences and worked both in EI+ and NICI mode. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B. V. All rights reserved.