Assessing the efficiency of different solvents for detecting gliotoxin from soil, organic manures and crop plant

Trichoderma virens produces gliotoxin and it is considered as a potent antibiotic against several soil-borne fungal and bacterial pathogens infecting crop plants. There is no study on the fate of gliotoxin especially its persistence in soil and crop plants. For precise analysis of its persistence, dissipation and movement of gliotoxin in soil ecosystem, it is important to find a suitable solvent that effectively extract the gliotoxin from soil and crop plant. In this study, various commonly used polar and non-polar solvents were assessed for their efficiency on extraction of gliotoxin from agricultural soil, farm yard manure (FYM), coir pith, tomato plants and from the mycelial mat of T. virens. Chloroform was found to be the effective solvent for the extraction of gliotoxin from soil, FYM and coir pith with extraction efficiency of 85%, 79% and 72%, respectively. Ethyl acetate extracted the maximum amount of gliotoxin from tomato leaves and roots with 79% and 72% extraction efficiency. Methanol effectively extracted gliotoxin from the mycelium of T. virens. From this study, it is concluded that chloroform and ethyl acetate are suitable for the extraction and detection of gliotoxin from the soil ecosystem and crop plants, respectively.