Liquid Chromatographic Determination of Major Secondary Metabolites Produced by Aspergillus Species from Section Flavi
Abstract A liquid chromatographic (LC) method was developed for simultaneous determination of major secondary metabolites—including cyclopiazonic acid (CPA), O-methylsterigmatocystin (OMST), and the versicolorins—produced by Aspergillus species from section Flavi (A. flavus, A. parasiticus, A. tamarii, and A. caelatus) on a liquid medium. Metabolites were extracted with chloroform and quantitated without prior cleanup by means of normal- phase ion-pair partition LC on silica gel with a mobile phase of n-heptane-2-propanol-n-butanolwater- tetrabutylammonium hydroxide (2560 + 900 + 230 + 32 + 8, v/v). Recoveries of CPA and OMST from fungal cultures spiked at 10 μg/mL were 98.90 + 3.27 and 95.92 + 5.27% (n = 5), respectively. At spike levels of 100 μg/mL, recoveries were 98.89 + 3.87 and 97.65 + 4.32% (n = 5), respectively. Limits of detection for pure standards were 0.25 μg/mL for CPA (at 280 nm) and 0.30 μg/mL for OMST (at 310 nm). UV detector responses to CPA and OMST were linear to about 0.5 and 3.5 μg/injection, respectively