Analysis of the fusariotoxins zearalenone and vomitoxin (deoxynivalenol) in human foods and animal feeds by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)

Summary HPLC procedures for analyses of the fusariotoxins zearalenone and vomitoxin in individual food- and feedstuffs as well as in mixed feed are described. Zearalenone is separated on a column with polar stationary phase (25 cm × 4.6 mm i.d., particle size 7 m), eluted with a chloroform-isooctane (75/25, v/v)+1.5% methanol mixture and detected fluorometrically. The quantitative determination was possible in all analyzed samples with a detection limit of 2g/kg with 70–80% recovery. Vomitoxin is fractionated by HPLC (C ₁₈ ¹ column, 25 cm×4 mm i.d., 5 m particle size) with water-methanol (60/40, v/v) mobile phase and determined by combining GLC or TLC with UV detection. The detection limit in mixed feed with interfering substances was 25 g/kg (recovery 25–35%). The separation by HPLC makes preparation of pure vomitoxin possible. The described methods are fast, simple and low cost and are suitable for routine analyses.