Rapid and Sensitive Method for Citrinin Determination Using High-Performance Liquid Chromatography with Fluorescence Detection

Citrinin is a toxic product of secondary metabolism of fungi, such as certain Aspergillus, Penicillium, and Monascus species that are usually contaminating cereals. A new sensitive liquid chromatographic method with fluorescence detection was developed, validated, and applied for citrinin determination. The method is based on reversed-phase separation at pH 2.5, where citrinin exhibits the highest fluorescence quantum yield. In this setup, no derivatization step is needed. The method shows linearity in the range between 0.2 μg/mL and 0.1 mg/mL. The detection limit reached is 90 ng/mL (3.6 × 10−7 M). Validated method was successfully applied on analysis of spiked and real cereal samples.