Survey of natural occurrence of trichothecene mycotoxins and zearalenone in Korean cereals harvested in 1992 using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry.

For the survey of the natural occurrence of trichothecene mycotoxins, produced by species of fungi imperfecti such as Fusarium and Trichothecium, a sensitive analytical method was developed for the simultaneous detection and quantitation of the major trichothecene mycotoxins, viz. T-2 toxin (T-2), HT-2 toxin (HT-2), nivalenol (NIV), fusarenon-X (F-X), deoxynivalenol (DON), 3-acetyl deoxynivalenol (3-Ac DON), and zearalenone (ZEN), using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry-selected ion monitoring (GC/MS-SIM) mode after trimethyl silyl derivatization. The incidence of NIV and DON in 30 barley samples were 93% and 67%, respectively; the average contents of NIV and DON in positive samples were 390 ng/g (range 40-2038) and 106 ng/g (range 5-361) respectively. In 15 maize samples, the incidences of NIV and DON were 53% and 93% respectively and the average contents were 168 ng/g and 145 ng/g, respectively. These results suggest that NIV and DON were the major contaminating trichothecene mycotoxins in Korean barley and maize samples harvested in 1992.