Determination of B-trichothecenes in wheat by post column derivatisation liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection (PCD-HPLC-FLD)

Abstract

B-trichothecenes are one of the most common contaminants of cereals in Europe. Therefore, the use of fast and accurate methods is necessary to measure contamination levels and observe regulatory limits.

At the moment, mostly gas chromatographic (GC) methods are used but HPLC-UV methods are also employed. Clean-up is commonly done either with immunoaffinity or Mycosep® columns.

In the Christian Doppler Laboratory for Mycotoxin Research we have established an alternative HPLC method with post column derivatisation (PCD) as an alternative to existing chromatographic methods. This PCD-HPLC-FLD method uses a Mycosep® clean-up and allows the simultaneous detection and quantification of deoxynivalenol, nivalenol, fusarenon X, 3-acetyldeoxynivalenol and 15-acetyldeoxynivalenol. A validation with wheat gave for deoxynivalenol a limit of quantification ten times below the drafted European Union guideline level (500 µg.kg⁻¹) and a limit of detection of 8 µg.kg⁻¹. The relative standard derivation for DON was 10% (n=30). The obtained mean recovery rate for DON was 90% in a range from 50 to 1000 µg.kg⁻¹.