A minor survey of deoxynivalenol in Fusarium infected wheat from Yangtze–Huaihe river basin region in China

Deoxynivalenol (DON) is frequently present in infected cereals such as wheat, barley and maize. Fusarium asiaticum and Fusarium graminearium are the key fungal species which produces DON, when they infect wheat in China. Our present study is to do a minor survey on the presence of DON in the highly infected wheat regions from Jiang su and An hui province, China, harvested during the year 2010. A total of 56 wheat samples which are naturally infected by Fusarium sp., of which 35 samples from Jiang su province and 21 samples from An hui province were taken up for the study. The samples were analyzed for the presence of DON by using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) combined with ultraviolet detection. The recoveries of DON from the spiked samples (500–15,000 μg/kg) were obtained in the range of 85.7–90.2%, with the average relative standard deviation of 2.7%. The average percentage of contamination in all the samples was 89.3%, with the DON concentration ranging between 259 and 4975 μg/kg, and with the mean of 1962 μg/kg. According to the Chinese standard limits for DON, nearly 70% of the samples were above the maximum tolerable level of 1000 μg/kg. However, only 44% of the samples exceeded the European commission limits for unprocessed wheat of 1750 μg/kg. Regions where there was higher level of Fusarium sp. contamination due to climatic changes like heavy rainfall with high humidity, showed the presence of higher levels of DON in the samples. Cropping of Fusarium resistant wheat cultivars like Sumai 3 in the regions where the wheat is highly susceptible for the Fusarium contamination could help in the reduction of contamination in wheat. ► Survey on the presence of deoxynivalenol (DON) in the wheat harvested in 2010 was studied. ► Nearly 89.3% of wheat samples were contaminated with DON. ► Climatic conditions favored the Fusarium sp. contamination in wheat.