Toxicological approaches to the metabolites of Fusaria. XI. Trichothecenes and zearalenone from Fusarium species isolated from river sediments.

Fifty isolates of Fusarium species from river sediments were examined on their producibility of mycotoxins such as trichothecenes and zearalenone. The most frequent fungal isolate was Fusarium oxysporum, followed by F. solani and F. lateritium. When cultured on Czapek-Dox medium supplemented with peptone, more than half of these strains were suspected to produce trichothecene mycotoxins through toxicity to mice and reticulocyte assay method. One of toxic isolates, F. lateritium 5036, was proved to produce the following five kinds of trichothecenes; diacetoxyscirpenol, 7alpha-hydroxydiacetoxyscirpenol, 7,8alpha-dihydroxy-diacetoxyscirpenol, 8alpha-hydroxydiacetoxyscirpenol (neosolaniol) and diacetylnivalenol. Three strains produced zearalenone on rice grain culture.