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. 2021 May;37(2):149-159.
doi: 10.1007/s12550-021-00424-0. Epub 2021 Mar 5.

Analysis of 13 Alternaria mycotoxins including modified forms in beer

Sophie Scheibenzuber  1 , Fabian Dick  1 , Stefan Asam  2 , Michael Rychlik  1
Affiliations

Analysis of 13 Alternaria mycotoxins including modified forms in beer

Sophie Scheibenzuber et al. Mycotoxin Res. 2021 May.

Abstract

A multi-mycotoxin LC-MS/MS method was developed to quantify 13 free and modified Alternaria toxins in different beer types by applying a combination of stable-isotope dilution assays (SIDAs) and matrix-matched calibration. With limits of detection (LODs) between 0.03 µg/L (alternariol monomethyl ether, AME) and 5.48 µg/L (altenuene, ALT), limits of quantitation (LOQs) between 0.09 µg/L (AME) and 16.24 µg/L (ALT), and recoveries between 72 and 113%, we obtained a sensitive and reliable method, which also covers the emerging toxins alternariol-3-glucoside (AOH-3-G), alternariol-9-glucoside (AOH-9-G), alternariol monomethyl ether-3-glucoside (AME-3-G) and alternariol-3-sulfate (AOH-3-S) and alternariol monomethylether-3-sulfate (AME-3-S). Furthermore, 50 different beer samples were analyzed, showing no contamination with Alternaria toxins apart from tenuazonic acid (TeA) in concentrations between 0.69 µg/L and 16.5 µg/L. According to this study, the exposure towards TeA through beer consumption can be considered as relatively low, as the threshold of toxicological concern (TTC) value of 1500 ng/kg body weight per day might not be reached when consuming reasonable amounts of beer.

Keywords: Alternaria mycotoxins; Beer; Modified toxins; Stable isotope dilution assay; Tenuazonic acid.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Chemical structures of 14 Alternaria mycotoxins including some modified forms. Due to instable standard solutions, the toxin stemphyltoxin III (STTXIII) was only qualitatively included in this study
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
LC-MS/MS chromatograms of AOH (a), AME (b) and TeA (c), and their stable isotope-labelled analogues. The respective transition used for quantitation is shown in black and the transition used for confirmation in grey
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
LC-MS/MS chromatogram of the 12 Alternaria mycotoxins AOH-3-S (a), AME-3-S (b), AOH-9-G (c), AOH-3-G (d), ALT (e), AME-3-G (f), ATXI (g), AOH (h), ALTP (i), TEN (j), ATXII (k) and AME (l). The chromatogram for TeA is included in Fig. 2
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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