Isolation and Liquid Chromatographic Determination of the Cyclic Peptide Mycotoxin Cyclosporin A from Rice

A simple method for determination and quantitation of a cyclic peptide mycotoxin, cyclosporin A, in rice is presented. Rice inoculated with Trichoderma polysporum (Link ex Pers.) was extracted with methylene chloride after 4 weeks of incubation. Cyclosporin A was isolated from extracts by using open bed gel filtration column chromatography (LH-20, acetonitrile) and monitored with thin layer chromatography and reverse phase liquid chromatography coelution with a standard. Preliminary thin layer chromatographic methods were developed. Cyclosporin A was detected by iodine and after partial acid hydrolysis by ninhydrin and UV light. A liquid chromatographic method was developed that used a reverse phase disposable cartridge cleanup and isocratic chromatography with a reverse phase octadecylsilica column and a UV detector set at 212 nm. Recovery of cyclosporin A from spiked rice samples (mg/g range) was 85%.