Quantitation of patulin pathway metabolites using gas-liquid chromatography

A gas-liquid chromatographic system which allows most of the metabolites of the patulin pathway to be separated and quantitated has been developed. The metabolites are mostly phenols, and after conversion to their trimethylsilyl derivatives they are efficiently separated on a 3.18 mm O.D. stainless-stell column of 10% QF-1 on Gas-Chrom Q using a temperature programme. The detection limits for the three phenolic acids, 6-methylsalicylic acid, m-hydroxybenzoic acid and gentisic acid are all markedly lower than those obtained in previous systems. The usefulness of the system has been assessed by quantitating the patulin pathway metabolites present in culture filtrates of Penicillium urticae NRRL 2159A.