Teratogenicity of patulin and patulin adducts formed with cysteine

Abstract

The mean lethal dose of patulin for the chicken embryo injected in the air cell before incubation was determined to be 68.7μg and that for the 4 day old embryo was 2.35 μg. Both patulin (1 to 2 μg/egg) and the reaction mixture between patulin and cysteine (15 to 150 μg of patulin equivalents) were teratogenic to the chicken embryo. At least two ninhydrin negative and 4 ninhydrin positive products were formed during the latter reaction. The explanation of the reaction mechanism remains to be elaborated.