Occurrence of ergot alkaloids in wheat from Albania

ABSTRACT

The occurrence of ergot alkaloids in wheat harvested in Albania was investigated. A total of 71 samples of winter wheat collected in 2014 and 2015 were analysed for the 12 most important ergot alkaloids using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. In the harvesting year 2014, 48.6% of samples were contaminated with ergot alkaloids, whereas in 2015 only 19.4% of samples were contaminated. In 2014, the concentrations of total ergot alkaloids ranged from 17.3 to 975.4 μg kg⁻¹, and in 2015 they ranged from 10.3 to 390.5 μg kg⁻¹. The samples contained from one to nine ergot alkaloids. The most frequent were ergometrine, ergosine and ergocristine, and the least frequent were ergocryptine, ergocryptinine and ergocorninine.

KEYWORDS:

• Ergot alkaloids
• wheat
• liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry
• Albania

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

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Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the Slovenian Research Agency [grant number P4-0092]; and the Erasmus Mundus Programme of the European Union.