Spectrophotometric determination of trichothecene mycotoxins with chromotropic acid

Fusarenon-X and T-2 toxin easily gave a colored product by the reaction with the reagents used for detection of formaldehyde such as chromotropic acid, J acid and phenyl J acid, and also gave a fluorescent product with J acid in sulfuric acid. The color reaction of fusarenon-X with chromotropic acid, which is most widely used as the reagent for formaldehyde, was studied in order to establish a simple and rapid micro-determining method for trichothecene mycotoxins. The following standard procedure was chosen as the result of the discussion on various conditions: To a 20μl of sample ethanol solution in a micro-test tube(1.5 ml) with ground stopper, 1.0 ml of 1% (w/v) chromotropic sulfuric acid (91 v/v%) is added and the mixture is heated in a boilling water bath for 10 minutes. After cooling, the absorbance of the reaction mixture is measured at 583 nm using a microcell (light pas slengths: 10mm). The colored product was stable for few hours at room temperature. By the proposed method, fusarenon-X and T-2 toxin could be determined for (120)μg/20μl and (130)μg/20μl, respectively. For the other trichothecene mycotoxins, neosolaniol, nivalenol, tetraacetylnivalenol and HT-2 toxin were positive but trichothecin and dihydronivalenol were negative in this reaction.