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Analysis for Stachybotrys Toxins
Bruce B. Jarvis1, Ph.D., Prof., Simon F. Hinkley

Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and Joint Institute for Food Safety and Nutrition, University of Maryland, College Park, MD e-mail address: bj6@umail.umd.edu

Analytical conditions have been developed for the detection and quantitation of several classes of mycotoxins produced by the toxigenic mold, Stachybotrys atra (S. chartarum). Fungal cultures or environmental samples are extracted with methanol-chloroform and the crude extracts passed through a PEI silica cleanup column. The fractions from this cleanup column are analyzed by reversed phase chromatography (C-18, acetonitrile-water-formic acid) coupled to a diode array detector. Three major classes of mycotoxins are produced by S. atra: trichothecenes, phenylspirodrimanes, and, a new class of diterpenoids, the atranones. Thirty-eight isolates of S. atra were assayed for their mycotoxin production, and the S. atra isolates fell into two distinct classes: those that produce trichothecenes (12/38) and those that produce atranones (22/38).