ABSTRACT
Mycotoxins are secondary metabolites of fungi that are toxic to higher animals. They are typically low molecular weight compounds with diverse structures, and many possess functionalities making them good candidates for chromatographic analysis. This chapter focuses on a discussion of sampling, sample preparation, extraction, and cleanup. It provides a general discussion of these chromatographic techniques followed by applications to specific mycotoxin groups. Minicolumn chromatography has been a widely used chromatographic technique for the screening of mycotoxins since it was initially introduced by C. E. Holaday for aflatoxin analysis of peanuts. Thin layer chromatography has been the most commonly used method for the analysis of mycotoxins since the discovery of the aflatoxins. Mobile phases vary considerably depending on the mycotoxins to be separated, the type of plate used, and compounds that may interfere with detection or quantitation of the mycotoxin of interest.
