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ARS Home » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #90440
Title: RAPID PURIFICATION OF FUMONISINS AND THEIR HYDROLYSIS PRODUCTS WITH SOLID-PHASE EXTRACTION COLUMNS

Author
item Poling, Stephen
item Plattner, Ronald

Submitted to: Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/5/1999
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Fumonisins are toxins produced by a mold that grows on corn. High levels of fumonisin contamination are associated with a range of toxic responses in farm animals and may pose a health risk to humans. During the thermal or chemical processing of corn into various products, the fumonisins can breakdown into simpler compounds which may also be toxic. Fumonisin B1 occurs in the greatest amounts in naturally contaminated corn and is the best studied of the fumonisins. The other fumonisins occur in smaller amount and less is known about them because they are not readily available. We developed a simple procedure that can isolate all the fumonisins and separated them from each other. A method was also developed to separate and purify the fumonisin breakdown products following a simple chemical hydrolysis. The method does not require any expensive equipment, takes only a few hours to complete and can produce gram quantities of the fumonisins. These can be used to begin testing the toxicity of the other fumonisins or to use as reference materials for the identification and quantitation of the other fumonisins and the fumonisin breakdown products in corn and corn-based products. These reference materials will allow corn and corn-based products to be analyzed to insure they are safe for human and animal consumption.

Technical Abstract: Fumonisin B3 and B4 (FB3 and FB4) were recovered from the 50/50 acetonitrile/water extract of corn cultures of a strain of Fusarium moniliforme that does not make FB1 or FB2 by stirring the extract with IRA-68, a weak-anion exchange resin. The fumonisins were desorbed with 5% acetic acid in the same solvent. After dilution with water, the desorbed fumonisins were separated into FB3 (FB3 and FA3) and FB4 (FB4, FC4 and FA4) fractions with a tC18 solid-phase extraction (SPE) cartridge. The FB3 fraction was then separated into FB3 and FA3 by using a NH2 SPE cartridge and eluting with 5% acetic acid and increasing amounts of acetonitrile in water. Finally, FB1 and FA3 were hydrolyzed with calcium hydroxide. After recovery from the reaction mixture using a tC18 cartridge, the hydrolyzed and partially hydrolyzed analogs were separated and the unreacted fumonisins recovered by using a NH2 cartridge, initially in the normal-phase mode with increasing amounts of water in acetonitrile and then in the reversed-phase mode after adding 5% acetic acid to the solvent and eluting in the reverse order.