Abstract
A sensitive and reliable analytical method has been developed and validated for the determination of five Alternaria toxins, including tenuazonic acid (TeA), alternariol (AOH), alternariol monomethyl ether (AME), altenuene (ALT), and tentoxin (TEN), in drinking water using a one-step enrichment and clean-up strategy followed by ultra-performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS). Drinking water samples were preprocessed using excess sodium sulfite to remove residual chlorine, and the pH was adjusted by formic acid. Analytes were concentrated and purified from the water samples using hydrophilic-lipophilic balanced (HLB) solid-phase extraction (SPE) cartridges. Chromatographic separation was performed on an Acquity HSS C18 column using 0.1 mM ammonium carbonate and methanol as the mobile phase. The average recoveries at three spiked levels (0.1, 0.5, and 1 ng/L for TeA, AOH, and ALT; 0.01, 0.05, and 0.1 ng/L for TEN and AME) were 76.1–106.5%, with an intra-day precision less than 15.5% and inter-day precision of 11.8–16.5%. The limits of detection (LODs) were 0.05 ng/L for TeA, AOH, and ALT and 0.005 ng/L for TEN and AME. The limits of quantification (LOQs) were 0.1 ng/L for TeA, AOH, and ALT and 0.01 ng/L for TEN and AME. The developed method was applied to monitor 289 drinking water samples collected in Beijing from 2015 to 2017, and TeA and TEN were found in 28 samples, with concentrations ranging from 0.16 to 2.7 ng/L and 0.21 to 2.2 ng/L, respectively.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Al-Gabr HM, Zheng T, Yu X (2014) Fungi contamination of drinking water. Rev Environ Contam Toxicol 228:121–139
Arcella D, Eskola M, Gómez Ruiz JA (2016) Dietary exposure assessment to Alternaria toxins in the European population. EFSA J 14:4654
Barkai-Golan R (2008) Alternaria mycotoxins. In: Barkai-Golan R, Nachman P (eds) Mycotoxin in fruits and vegetables. Academic Press, San Diego, pp 185–203
Brugger EM, Wagner J, Schumacher DM, Koch K, Podlech J, Metzler M, Lehmann L (2006) Mutagenicity of the mycotoxin alternariol in cultured mammalian cells. Toxicol Lett 164:221–230
Cai S, King JB, Du L, Powell DR, Cichewicz RH (2014) Bioactive sulfur-containing sulochrin dimers and other metabolites from an Alternaria sp. isolate from a Hawaiian soil sample. J Nat Prod 77:2280–2287
da Motta S, Soares LMV (2000) Simultaneous determination of tenuazonic and cyclopiazonic acids in tomato products. Food Chem 71:111–116
Delgado T, Gomez-Cordoves C (1998) Natural occurrence of alternariol and alternariol methyl ether in Spanish apple juice concentrates. J Chromatogr A 815:93–97
Fehr M, Pahlke G, Fritz J, Christensen MO, Boege F, Altemoller M, Podlech J, Marko D (2009) Alternariol acts as a topoisomerase poison, preferentially affecting the IIalpha isoform. Mol Nutr Food Res 53:441–451
Gambacorta L, Magistà D, Perrone G, Murgolo S, Logrieco AF, Solfrizzo M (2018) Co-occurrence of toxigenic moulds, aflatoxins, ochratoxin A, Fusarium and Alternaria mycotoxins in fresh sweet peppers (Capsicum annuum) and their processed products. World Mycotoxin J 11:159–174
Goncalves AB, Paterson RR, Lima N (2006) Survey and significance of filamentous fungi from tap water. Int J Hyg Environ Health 209:257–264
Hageskal G, Lima N, Skaar I (2009) The study of fungi in drinking water. Mycol Res 113:165–172
Hong SG, Pryor BM (2004) Development of selective media for the isolation and enumeration of Alternaria species from soil and plant debris. Can J Microbiol 50:461–468
Kelley J, Kinsey G, Paterson R, Brayford D, Pitchers R, Rossmore H (2003) Identification and control of fungi in distribution systems. Awwa Research Foundation and American Water Works Association, Denver
Lehmann L, Wagner J, Metzler M (2006) Estrogenic and clastogenic potential of the mycotoxin alternariol in cultured mammalian cells. Food Chem Toxicol 44:398–408
Nielsen KF, Gravesen S, Nielsen PA, Andersen B, Thrane U, Frisvad JC (1999) Production of mycotoxins on artificially and naturally infested building materials. Mycopathologia 145:43–56
Noser J, Schneider P, Rother M, Schmutz H (2011) Determination of six Alternaria toxins with UPLC-MS/MS and their occurrence in tomatoes and tomato products from the Swiss market. Mycotoxin Res 27:265–271
Ostry V (2008) Alternaria mycotoxins: an overview of chemical characterization, producers, toxicity, analysis and occurrence in foodstuffs. World Mycotoxin J 1:175–188
Otani H, Kohnobe A, Kodama M, Kohmoto K (1998) Production of a host-specific toxin by germinating spores of Alternaria brassicicola. Physiol Mol Plant Pathol 52:285–295
Rodríguez-Carrasco Y, Mañes J, Berrada H, Juan C (2016) Development and validation of a LC-ESI-MS/MS method for the determination of Alternaria toxins alternariol, alternariol methyl-ether and tentoxin in tomato and tomato-based products. Toxins 8
Scott PM (2001) Analysis of agricultural commodities and foods for Alternaria mycotoxins. J AOAC Int 84:1809–1817
Scott PM, Kanhere SR (2001) Chromatographic method for Alternaria toxins in apple juice. Methods Mol Biol 157:225–234
Siciliano I, Ortu G, Gilardi G, Gullino ML, Garibaldi A (2015) Mycotoxin production in liquid culture and on plants infected with Alternaria spp. isolated from rocket and cabbage. Toxins 7:743–754
Stennett PJ, Beggs PJ (2004) Alternaria spores in the atmosphere of Sydney, Australia, and relationships with meteorological factors. Int J Biometeorol 49:98–105
Tiemann U, Tomek W, Schneider F, Muller M, Pohland R, Vanselow J (2009) The mycotoxins alternariol and alternariol methyl ether negatively affect progesterone synthesis in porcine granulosa cells in vitro. Toxicol Lett 186:139–145
Tölgyesi Á, Stroka J, Tamosiunas V, Zwickel T (2015) Simultaneous analysis of Alternaria toxins and citrinin in tomato: an optimised method using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Food Addit Contam Part A 32:1512–1522
Wollenhaupt K, Schneider F, Tiemann U (2008) Influence of alternariol (AOH) on regulator proteins of cap-dependent translation in porcine endometrial cells. Toxicol Lett 182:57–62
Yang FZ, Yang B, Li BB, Xiao C (2015) Alternaria toxin-induced resistance in rose plants against rose aphid (Macrosiphum rosivorum): effect of tenuazonic acid. J Zhejiang Univ Sci B 16:264–274
Yekeler H, Bitmis K, Ozcelik N, Doymaz MZ, Calta M (2001) Analysis of toxic effects of Alternaria toxins on esophagus of mice by light and electron microscopy. Toxicol Pathol 29:492–497
Zhao K, Shao B, Yang D, Li F (2015) Natural occurrence of four Alternaria mycotoxins in tomato- and citrus-based foods in China. J Agri Food Chem 63:343–348
Zhou B, Qiang S (2008) Environmental, genetic and cellular toxicity of tenuazonic acid isolated from Alternaira alternata. African J Biotechnol 7:1151–1156
Zwickel T, Klaffke H, Richards K, Rychlik M (2016) Development of a high performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry based analysis for the simultaneous quantification of various Alternaria toxins in wine, vegetable juices and fruit juices. J Chromatogr A 1455:74–85
Funding
This work was financially supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2017YFC1600500).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Responsible editor: Vitor Manuel Oliveira Vasconcelos
Publisher’s note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Zhang, Y., Li, H., Zhang, J. et al. Determination of Alternaria toxins in drinking water by ultra-performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry. Environ Sci Pollut Res 26, 22485–22493 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-019-05483-6
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-019-05483-6