A quantitative thin layer chromatography method for the analysis of aflatoxins, ochratoxin A, zearalenone, T-2 toxin and sterigmatocystin in foodstuffs.

A simple multimycotoxin analytical method was devised for the assay of 8 mycotoxins in foodstuff samples. The procedure consisted in the extraction of the samples with acetonitrile-4% KCl with the addition of HCl, defating with hexane and final extraction with methylene chloride. The mycotoxins were separated by bidimensional thin layer chromatography. The recovery was higher than 80% for all the mycotoxins. The limits of detection were 1.2 micrograms aflatoxins, 5 micrograms ochratoxin A, 20 micrograms sterigmatocystin, 100 micrograms T-2 toxin and 100 micrograms zearalenone/kg.