Official websites use. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. Ergot sclerotia effect cereal crops intended for consumption. Ergot alkaloids within ergot sclerotia are assessed to ensure contamination is below safety standards established for human and animal health. Ergot alkaloids exist in two configurations, the R and S -epimers.
It is important to quantify both configurations. Validation parameters such as linearity, limit of detection LOD , limit of quantification LOQ , matrix effects, recovery and precision were investigated. For the 12 epimers analyzed, low LOD and LOQ values were observed, allowing for the sensitive detection of ergot epimers.
Recovery was The validation parameters conform with previous studies and exhibit differences between the R and S -epimers which has been rarely documented.
This new sensitive method allows for the use of a new internal standard and can be incorporated and applied to research or diagnostic laboratories. Mycotoxins continue to be a concern for the safety and quality of food and feed [ 1 , 2 ]. Specifically, the fungus Claviceps purpurea infects cereal crops forming visibly dark sclerotia that contain secondary metabolites known as ergot alkaloids [ 3 ].
Ergot alkaloids have two configurations known as the R -epimer and S -epimer. Rotation of a functional group on the chemical structure at the carbon-8 defines the epimer. The R -epimer exhibits a left-hand rotation, whereas the S -epimer exhibits a right-hand rotation [ 4 , 5 , 6 ].
