Contamination of Foodstuffs by Trichothecene Mycotoxins

Abstract

Trichothecene mycotoxins are chemically related sesquiterpenoids with 12, 13-epoxy-trichothecene nuclei. T-2 toxin, nivalenol, deoxynivalenol, and satratoxins are isolated as causative toxicants of food-borne diseases such as moldy-corn toxicosis in U.S., Akakabi (red-mold) toxicosis in Japan, vomiting and feed-refusal diseases in U.S., and satratoxicosis in the Central Europe, respectively. Currently, the TLC, HPLC, GC and GC-MS are introduced for chemical analyses of the trichothecene mycotoxins in food and feed, and the accumulated data strongly revealed that, among more than 60 kinds of trichothecenes, deoxynivalenol ( = vomitoxin) and nivalenol, both being produced by Fusarium graminearum (Gibberella zeae in perfect stage), are major contaminants in wheat, barley, corn and other cereals and foodstuffs. In 1983, the Canadian goverment set a guideline for deoxynivalenol in wheat, and FDA (US) recommended “level of concern� for this mycotoxin. As for nivalenol, which is also a contaminant in domestic cereals along with deoxynivalenol and possesses more than ten times higher toxicity than deoxynivalenol, neither guideline nor “level of concern� is recommended by the Japanese goverment at present. © 1984, The Pharmaceutical Society of Japan. All rights reserved.