Identification of the toxic principle in a sample of poaefusarin.

A sample of poaefusarin (a mycotoxin suspected of being one of the toxins involved in alimentary toxic aleukia in the U.S.S.R.) was received from a Soviet scientist for evaluation and comparison with other mycotoxins. Although poaefusarin is presumed to be a steroid, analyses by thin-layer chromatography, gas-liquid chromatography, and infrared, ultraviolet, and mass spectrometry could not confirm the presence of a steroid structure. However, 2.5% of the sample was made up of the trichothecene T-2 toxin, an amount sufficient to explain the toxicity found in the rat and rabbit skin toxicity tests. In addition, neosolaniol (0.14%), T-2 tetraol (0.6%), and zearalenone (F-2) (0.43%) were present in the sample. Since the toxicity was found to be associated only with T-2 toxin, no attempt was made to determine the nature of the other nontoxic components of the sample.