Isolation of Nivalenol and Fusarenon-X from Pressed Barley Culture by Centrifugal Partition Chromatography

Abstract

A method for the production and isolation of gram quantities of nivalenol and fusarenon-X, trichothecene mycotoxins, is presented. Fusarium graminearum F-1465 was inoculated and cultured on the pressed barley, and the cultured product was extracted with acetonitrile. The crude extracts were subjected to silica gel column chromatography and then to centrifugal partition chromatography (CPC) using two-phase solvent system n-butanol/water and chloroform/methanol/water. The simple procedures were advantageous for the large scale purification of two toxins from cultured pressed barley medium because it was more time and yield effective. Starting from 1 Kg of the pressed barley substrate, 0.34 g of crystalline nivalenol (purity 103%) was obtained by recrystallization of CPC fraction from hot methanol and 0.78 g of fusarenon-X (purity 77%) was obtained directly from CPC fraction by evaporating to dryness.