Chromatographic determination of the fumonisin mycotoxins

The fumonisins are a recently identified group of fungal toxins, occurring worldwide in naturally contaminated maize, which have elicited considerable attention over the past decade due to their association with the animal disease syndromes, equine leukoencephalomalacia and porcine pulmonary oedema, and their reported association with oesophageal cancer in rural areas of Transkei, South Africa and Linxian County, China. This paper reviews the development of sensitive chromatographic analytical methods for the determination of these toxins in a range of mainly maize or maize-based food matrices. Initial attempts at gas chromatographic determination of these toxins were supplanted by the successful development of liquid chromatographic methods based on solid-phase extraction (SPE) of solvent extracts, followed by precolumn derivatisation and HPLC determination using fluorescence detection. The most widely used method involves strong anion-exchange (SAX) SPE and the use of o-phthaldialdehyde as derivatising agent. In contrast, the development of thin-layer chromatographic methods enables large numbers of samples to be screened economically. The recent advances in liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry have resulted in the development of suitable methods for fumonisin analysis without the need of derivatisation.