Teratogenicity of patulin and patulin adducts formed with cysteine

The mean lethal dose of patulin for the chicken embryo injected in the air cell before incubation was determined to be 68.7 mug and that for the 4-day-old embryo was 2.35 mug. Both patulin (1 to 2 mug/egg) and the reaction mixture between patulin and cysteine (15 to 150 mug of patulin equivalents) were teratogenic to the chicken embryo. At least two ninhydrin-negative and four ninhydrin-positive products were formed during the latter reaction. Our explanation of the reaction mechanism remains to be elaborated.