Development and Validation of a LC-ESI-MS/MS Method for the Determination of Alternaria Toxins Alternariol, Alternariol Methyl-Ether and Tentoxin in Tomato and Tomato-Based Products

Abstract

Alternaria species are capable of producing several secondary toxic metabolites in infected plants and in agricultural commodities, which play important roles in food safety. Alternaria alternata turn out to be the most frequent fungal species invading tomatoes. Alternariol (AOH), alternariol monomethyl ether (AME), and tentoxin (TEN) are some of the main Alternaria mycotoxins that can be found as contaminants in food. In this work, an analytical method based on liquid chromatography (LC) tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) detection for the simultaneous quantification of AOH, AME, and TEN in tomato and tomato-based products was developed. Mycotoxin analysis was performed by dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction (DLLME) combined with LC-ESI-MS/MS. Careful optimization of the MS/MS parameters was performed with an LC/MS system with the ESI interface in the positive ion mode. Mycotoxins were efficiently extracted from sample extract into a droplet of chloroform (100 µL) by DLLME technique using acetonitrile as a disperser solvent. Method validation following the Commission Decision No. 2002/657/EC was carried out by using tomato juice as a blank matrix. Limits of detection and quantitation were, respectively, in the range 0.7 and 3.5 ng/g. Recovery rates were above 80%. Relative standard deviations of repeatability (RSDr) and intermediate reproducibility (RSDR) were ≤ 9% and ≤ 15%, respectively, at levels of 25 and 50 ng/g. Five out of 30 analyzed samples resulted positive to at least one Alternaria toxin investigated. AOH was the most common Alternaria toxin found, but at levels close to LOQ (average content: 3.75 ng/g).

Mycotoxin Dietary Exposure Assessment through Fruit Juices Consumption in Children and Adult Population

“…In the case of Ginger, even that its essential oils may inhibit fungal growth, some authors reported ginger contamination by mycotoxins specially OTA and AFs [23]. Vegetables like tomato or red fruits have also been reported contaminated by AOH [24,25]. Juan et al [26] also reported AOH in strawberry samples up to 752 µg/kg, amounts similar to those reported in the present study.…”

In Silico and In Vitro Studies of Mycotoxins and Their Cocktails; Their Toxicity and Its Mitigation by Silibinin Pre-Treatment

“…BEA and ENNs are cyclic depsipeptides, which consist of free electron pairs of oxygen carbonyl groups and tertiary amino groups of amide bonds giving these molecules the ability to act as nucleophiles [8]. Alternaria fungi contaminate a wide variety of food items such as cereals, fruits, wheat, barley, and sorghum, where it produces several toxins, with alternariol (AOH), alternariol-9-methyl ether (AME), and tentoxin (TEN) being the most important ones [9]. Penicillium species are known to produce mycophenolic acid (MPA) [10].…”

AlternariaMycotoxins in Food and Feed: An Overview

“…Consequently, Alternaria mycotoxins were detected in cereals and derived products [46,[57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71][72][73][74][75][76], feed [74,[109][110][111][112][113], dairy products [114], grapes and by-products [27,77,115], tomatoes and derived products [31,47,77,81,106,113], nuts and by-products [102,116], spices [117], soybeans [76,116,118], sunflower seeds [85,104,107], vegetables [27,101], vegetable oils [105], strawberries …”